


When you Smile, I See Stars in the sky

by yuniesan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, BB TEAM INDIA, Based on Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang 2019, Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Family Dynamics, Fanfiction within fanfiction, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Harley Peter Bruce and Hank are Steve's brothers, Identity Porn, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Secret Identity, Thor Loki Clint and Natasha are Tony's siblings, Tony Stark writes Fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 70,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21511363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuniesan/pseuds/yuniesan
Summary: There were several reasons as to why Tony Stark had decided not to go to MIT, instead following with his sister Natasha to a small town college in Upstate NY. One of the reasons was because one of his favorite authors was teaching a fiction writing class.. The second was the chance to go somewhere where there was a chance that no one would know he was a Stark.. The third was to stay out of his father's way all the while writing fanfics about his favorite superhero Captain America. On his first day he meets Steve Rogers, and from that moment forward Tony's life changes more than he could imagine.Steve Rogers hated Captain America, his father had created the character for him when he was a baby, like his brothers who also had their own comic book characters, but for some reason Captain America had become his father's most popular character. Now a Junior at college, he meets Tony, who absolutely loves Captain America, but there's something that caught Steve's eye. In some of the drawings above Tony's desk is another hero, a man in a metal suit, but as he gets to know Tony, he finds himself falling for the writer as well as the character that Tony's created to work alongside Captain America.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Past James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 100
Collections: 2019 Captain America/Iron Man Big Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for Cap-Iron Man Big Bang  
> I had the opportunity to work with the wonderful dragonk (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21513577)
> 
> Partly based on Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, it deviates from the book in a lot of places, mainly because the book is only written from one person's POV, but it was nice to actually write this from two different POV's
> 
> Originally the story was around 60K, and then I started editing and it became this.... I'm sorry it's so long but I had to.

**Captain America (comics)**

_From Wiki_

**Captain America** was created by comic book artist Joseph Rogers, Captain America was made as a gift towards his son who had been born within weeks of the first issue’s release. The character was named after Rogers’ son Steve, Rogers’ has said that he wanted his son to have someone to look up to, a hero who fought for everyone and stuck up for the little guy. Since its inception, Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, has had over twenty volumes, and nearly 200 issues since its release. In the last ten years three movies have been released following the character’s journey as a man out of time in the new century. New characters have been introduced, including the ever-popular Spider-man, which has now started its own solo run. The Captain America serialization will end in May of 2020, Rogers states that he wants to give the hero a true and satisfying ending that would match his character and make his son proud.

**_Awards and Nominations_ **

The Captain America comics have been nominated for over two hundred Awards during it’s twenty year run and has won over a hundred awards including, The Legacy Award, Incredible Heroes Award, Phantom Award for rising Artist, and the Heroic Age Award.

**_In other Media:_ **

While Captain America has been adapted into both animated and live-action series the Captain America Movies have grossed over 2.6 million dollars combined since their release. The last movie in the series will be released after the release of the final comic book in 2020.

* * *

It was move in day at the college, Tony had applied to a million schools, even some Ivy League schools, but in the end settled for going to the same college as his sister. His older brothers had all gone to big fancy schools, and even though he was a genius, his mother had always told him to make sure and live his life too. She had given him his love of writing and playing music, though he preferred writing over going to concerts. So, when he had started applying for colleges, he had decided to have writing as one of his majors, his brother Clint had told him that he was crazy, but Tony was smart and wouldn’t have problems keeping up.

That was another thing about his life, his family, as crazy as they were, they took care of him, made sure he went to the best schools in New York, made sure he smiled and had fun, even when he had blown up his workshop in the garage and had gotten a three hour lecture from his father about safety protocols and making sure not to mix chemicals. That was the thing about being a Stark, you had to be the best of the best, and when you messed up, well you got lectured for it.

Maybe he should start from the beginning, or at least the beginning for his family, you see while Tony is the only biological child of Howard and Maria Stark, he’s not their only child. He’s the youngest of five, in a rowdy household, the oldest being Thor, who was ten years older than Tony and the protective big brother over all of them, even though he had an unhealthy obsession with pop tarts, but that didn’t matter. The next is Loki, who is actually Thor’s biological brother, the two had been adopted at the age of five and three, when their parents had died in a housefire. Their parents had been good friends with Howard and Maria, so when Maria had trouble conceiving, they had decided that adopting the two brothers would be the next best solution. Howard needed heirs to Stark Industries, and Maria loved the boys as if they were her own.

Of course, this had started a catalyst in the Stark house, because a few years later they adopted a little boy named Clint, who as it turned out would be as much of a trouble maker as Loki had turned out to be. The two were barely months apart in age and there had been times when Jarvis, the family butler, and Ana, his wife and the family chef, had been at their wits end with the two. But the house had never been so alive, and it gave Howard a reason to act like a father to the three rowdy boys. Maria often times watched them as they blew up one thing or another, laughing at the antics of her boys, it had been one of the reasons why they had moved to a different part of the city, buying up an entire city block to create their home. That sprawling New York mansion that to this day feels too big for anyone to live in.

During this time, Maria begged Howard for another child, a little girl, because while she loved her boys, she didn’t like being out numbered, and she wanted someone to go shopping with and teach things too that Howard didn’t allow the boys to be taught, because men don’t dance in a ballet. Though she often told him that it was a lie, but he was set in his ways, and while Loki loved the arts, his taste was more about producing than performing. So, they started the process of adopting a little baby girl, she was from Russia, her parents had passed away the day she had been born. Though they hadn’t known it just yet, but Maria had been pregnant with Tony at the time.

Natasha had been home for a little over a week when the news came, and the Stark house was full of cheer, Howard sometimes grumbling about having too many kids, but Tony knew that his father loved them in his own way. Yeah, he had been a little harsh on them over the years, but he had wanted what was best for them. So, now to Tony, born at the end of May, just a few months younger than Natasha, he had come into the world too soon and too small. Screaming and crying, seven weeks premature, his brothers had told him that they had all been afraid that he wouldn’t have made it. They had seen the sadness in their parents’ eyes, Tony had been a miracle when they hadn’t thought it was possible.

As he stood in his dorm room, he knew that this whole thing wouldn’t have been possible if he had died eighteen years ago, he had been lucky that he had been born into the Stark house, that they had the best doctors that money could buy, because not everyone got that lucky. Maria had two babies that she loved, and Howard was beside himself at the fact that Tony had shown signs of being a genius when he was as young as three. He did everything with Natasha by his side, they would have been twins if they could have. She took ballet, like their mother wanted, she absolutely loved it so it was a huge win, while Tony played piano, oftentimes having Loki create elaborate sets for them to dance and play music in, to put on performances for their family.

Tony hadn’t been very shy, until his classmates started picking on him for being a smartass, which made him keep to himself more often than not. He found solace in a comic book character that had started being printed just a few years before he had been born. Captain America was a hero, he saved the world from Nazi’s and fought for the good guys, his alter ego was an artist, and he had a best friend too. Both him and Natasha had grown up loving the character, watching the cartoons, and once the movies had come out, they had watched them as well. It was from watching these that he had started writing, he had been around ten when this had started, Natasha helping him at first, until he had grown confident enough to write on his own. Though Nat, being his best friend and all, had been the one to constantly proof read all of his stories.

The only other people who had known he was writing these stories were his two best friends from school, Pepper and Rhodey. Though they laughed at him for writing them, they let him have his fun since he rarely got to do anything outside of the preapproved Stark extracurriculars. They were the only people outside of his family that he had been close with, Pepper had gone off to NYU to be with her girlfriend who lived in Queens and had also gotten into the school, and Rhodey went to MIT, where Tony had originally planned on going but in the end decided on a smaller school in a town that hadn’t been invaded by his brothers.

His mother had been proud of him, his father less so, but only because Tony was the only legitimate heir to the Stark fortune, his father had always been harder on him than on his brothers. Though he hated the man, he took the pain in stride, his brothers took over parts of the company, each working their way up, though Loki mostly worked with their mother’s foundation, as well as working in the Stark Studios division of S.I. Thor took a liking to working in the business side of the company, he had a natural love of science and it helped with the work their father was doing. Clint had taken the role of testing things, there was an official title, but Tony had deemed his job as Stark Industries’ Crash Test Dummy.

The company had seen major changes over the years, the most notable happened when Tony had been fourteen, and his mother had been shot using one of Howard’s own designs. It had devastated the man, because while Tony was often criticized by his father, he was also the only witness to what had happened since he had been with his mother. Howard Stark’s Achilles heel was his own wife, Tony wondered why a man like Howard who damned so much of who his son was, could love anyone. But he had grown up in that house and had seen the way his parents were towards one another, and he knew with absolute certainty that Howard loved Maria and he would do anything for her. Maria’s injury was a result of her shielding Tony from the bullet that had put her in the hospital, and his father had yelled at him for not protecting his mother better. His mother told him that his father loved him, he had just been scared, but Tony knew better and spent more time with his Captain America collection looking for ways to protect his family.

Tony had withdrawn more and more after that incident, inventing fabrics that would stop a bullet, working on things for soldiers to have in combat, things that weren’t weapons. As for Howard, well he stopped making guns, his wife was his number one priority and almost losing her had made the man a little crazy, well they could handle it because they were family though they tried to reign him in when it came to public functions. Tony rarely sought out his father after that, and their relationship had been a little strained. His brothers picking up the pieces of the whole fallout, because Howard blamed Tony, even though Tony was just a kid. So Tony, doing the only thing he could think of, wrote fanfiction about Captain America and a new superhero partner, Iron Man. The stories blew up, and while Tony was awkward in real life, his online persona was not.

Now that he was out of the house though, he had made a promise to his mother that he would work on his social skills. But Tony was notorious for staying away from people and hiding away in a lab, or on his laptop, his mother was glad that Natasha would be close by to pull him out of that deep hole of a life. They lived in the same building, though Nat lived one floor above him on the girl’s floor, so it was easy to move into the dorms, Loki and Clint helping Nat, while Thor helped Tony. When they were all moved in, the Stark siblings went to eat at one of the local Italian restaurants, they needed to know that it was legit Italian, their mother wouldn’t have it any other way. Once they finished, Nat went to her dorm to meet her roommate who was a close family friend, and Tony well he sat alone in his own room, not sure of what to do next.

His roommate would arrive the next day, the freshmen had to be there on Friday, while everyone else moved in on Saturday, though Tony wasn’t sure why his roommate was a junior, but he took it in stride. He had three older brothers, he would survive a few months with his roommate, it wouldn’t be that bad. He didn’t really go to bed that night, the bed feeling too new, the room too bare, he spent the night putting up his Captain America art, as well as some Iron Man art that one of his readers had done for him. It had been strange at first, that someone had loved his stories so much that they had wanted to draw it. He had drawn a few renderings of the first armors, the ones mentioned, and then others had taken them and drew them with Captain America for him. Those were the ones he loved the most, and the ones that were sitting above his desk as he started the next chapter of his story, he wanted to finish writing it before the final volume was published in May.

* * *

If there was one thing that Steve was certain of, it was that he hated Captain America, he was still at home, it was too early to function, but he could hear his father on the phone with his editors in New York, as they planned the end of the series. His father had created the character, naming it after his son as the public called him, because he wanted Steve to have someone to look up to. It was also because he had the idea of Steve growing up to be a big strong person, who took care of others, a man with a moral compass and a love for his country. What Steve wished hadn’t happened was his father’s need to put those ideals on him from the beginning, though he had a love for art like his father, he didn’t want to work on comic books at all.

His mother always told him to humor his father, he was lucky that he didn’t have to go to all of the events for Captain America, or that he had to actually live up to the man. She let him have his life outside of the story his father had created and he was grateful for it the most. So, Steve let his father put his own son’s life on paper, as long as he got to be free of the mantle that was created from it. Over the years Joseph Rogers added other people into the comics, including Steve’s ex-boyfriend and long-time best friend Bucky Barnes, his other best friend and roommate Sam Wilson, his youngest son Peter, who now had his own character and series that Joseph wanted to expand on hence he was ending his Captain America story. Though he had given Peter a different last name in the series, it had been born from his brother’s love of climbing walls and jumping from the top of his bunk bed. Spiderman wasn’t the same as Captain America, and Peter loved that his father had created it for him.

“Hey Punk,” Bucky’s voice rang throughout the house, “I’m here, let’s get this show on the road.”

Steve couldn’t help but sigh, they had grown up in a small town in upstate New York, the population was miniscule compared to other parts of the state, so they dated, though once they went off to college Bucky had realized that there was more to their lives than their small town and the two of them decided to break up. Bucky had dated around since, and so had Steve or at least he tried, they both grew from their experiences and realized that they were better as friends over being in a relationship. Much to his mother’s delight, because while she had been happy that Steve got to date, she didn’t think that Bucky was the best choice, not because she didn’t love him, she just knew that it wouldn’t have worked out in the end.

“Don’t date someone you knew in diapers,” she had told Steve after he and Bucky had broken it off, which had only made him laugh.

It had been two years since, and while Steve had only dated a few people, he couldn’t find someone he really liked, though Bucky had fallen for everyone, and broken a few hearts, he had said to Steve that it was a growing experience. To find and lose love, and he was looking for someone that interested him and would share the same experiences as he would, travel the world, eat at food stalls without getting sick.

“Come on,” Bucky called out. “We still have to pick up Sam, and you know how he is about where he sits in the damn car.”

“That’s only because you ran his foot over that one time, and now he refuses to sit behind you,” Steve said to him as he grabbed his stuff. Unlike Bucky, who lived in the dorms, Steve lived in the same house as Sam and the rest of their fraternity, though they weren’t like the others on campus, they were mostly just the guys on the baseball team, or those who had played baseball. Though Steve didn’t play anymore, he loved his room at the house, and wouldn’t give it up for the world, mainly because he had always shared with everyone and that room was the one place that had been his own.

They picked up Sam and drove off, Sam talking about a girl he had met over the summer who was also a student at the school, though he wasn’t sure if the girl liked him back, though Sam like Bucky also looked at relationships differently than Steve had, mainly because Sam had been trying to get over someone who he had never dated, Sam had pinned and then tried to get over it, even though Bucky spent a lot of time annoying him about not doing anything about the crush. So, now Bucky was ignoring Sam’s attempt at a new relationship, mainly because he liked acting like a little shit, but it didn’t matter because in the end Bucky had told him to get his shit together and ask her out.

“I’m working on it,” Sam had said as they stopped at the house.

“Not the new girl, the other one, the one you’ve been mooning over for the last year,” Bucky said to Sam, frustrated about Sam’s inability to ask someone out.

“Yeah, sure,” Sam said, looking over at Steve before walking off rushing off to his room on the second floor.

Steve dropped off his duffle bag in his attic bedroom, sighing as he listened to Sam and Bucky bicker a floor below. His room was the same as it had been when he had gone home for the summer, his easel in the corner, his drafting desk, which he had made in high school, against the vaulted wall. He had gotten his supplies delivered the week before, and even drove down to bring them to the house. He sighed looking at his room, his younger brothers not around yelling and screaming at one another. He liked the quiet that came with going to college sometimes. Taking one more look around he smiled before going to help Bucky move into the dorms.

“I still don’t understand why you won’t move into the house with us?” Steve said as they drove towards the school.

“My scholarship is dependent on me living on campus all four years,” Bucky told him as he pulled his hair into a bun, this was something else that had happened in the time since their break up, Bucky grew out his hair, which was weird in so many ways but it also made Steve realize just how different they really were.

“But you hate it, and you have a freshman for a roommate this year,” Steve said knowing it was weird, but actually a common thing for some upperclassmen to room with incoming freshmen.

“Yeah well they didn’t have any singles left and they told me that if I roomed with a freshman, they would lower the cost of the dorm, which means I would have to work less to pay for everything this year, so it’s a win-win.”

“Do you even know who your roommate is? Or did they decide this at the last minute?”

“I know who they are, though I’m not sure if it’s a joke of if it’s real, because there’s no way in hell anyone named Stark was going to our school,” Bucky said and Steve thought that maybe it wasn’t a Stark, but someone who just so happened to share the name. Rogers was a common name, even Steve Rogers was common, with more than a few popping up all over the country.

Bucky spent the rest of the drive talking about his classes, Steve was an Art major with a double minor in Art History and World History, while Bucky had gone for a business major with a minor in psychology. They had one class together, a prereq that they hadn’t taken yet, in some advance mathematics class, but that was it. Steve parked the car and started unloading, still wondering why anyone named Stark would be at their school, though he had rumors over the summer that the two youngest in the Stark family were starting college in the fall, they had kept what school they were going to out of the papers, so it was entirely possible that one of them would have ended up at their school.

They wouldn’t know for certain, since the freshmen were at orientation at the moment, so Steve helped Bucky unload his stuff, placing it outside the car as Bucky grabbed a trolley from the desk. They didn’t say anything until they walked into the room and saw one side of the room filled with some very expensive stuff, and a bunch of Captain America posters on the wall.

“Holy shit man,” Bucky said before he burst out laughing at the sight in front of him. Steve didn’t say another word, dropping Buck’s stuff on the empty bed wanting to run away from the room as fast as possible. But there was something else on the wall that caught his attention, it was a rendering of a metal suit, it was strange to see, but this wasn’t a character that his father had created. The more he looked through the pictures the more he saw of this metal man, next to Captain America.

He hadn’t realized that Bucky had left until the door swung open and a guy came in carrying a box full of stuff, while mumbling to himself about how hard the mattress was, and how he didn’t get any sleep because of it. Steve, being who he is because his mother taught him manners, helped the guy by taking the box out of his hands.

“Uhh....” the guy said and Steve couldn’t help but feel like he’s seen him before, even as the brunette pushed his glasses up his face. “Are you my roommate?”

“Uh... No, that would be Bucky, he stepped out for a minute, I was helping him move in, we drove down today, but no one was here when we got here so we figured that you were at orientation, but now you’re here,” Steve said feeling like he was rambling. “I’m Steve,” he held out his hand hoping that it wasn’t sweaty from bringing everything into the room.”

“Oh, hi Steve,” the other guy said smiling while his glasses slid down his face, his big brown eyes drawing Steve in, which was bad, he couldn’t get into a relationship with Bucky’s roommate, what would happen if it didn’t work out. “I’m Tony.”

“Holy shit, the rumors are true,” Bucky said from the door, holding his laundry bag, which was full of Bucky’s clean clothes, courtesy of his Bucky’s mom. “Dude, that’s Tony Stark, shit my roommate is Tony Stark.”

Steve couldn’t help but feel embarrassed, not only for himself, because he didn’t recognize the guy for being a Stark, but also for Tony who was now turning a slight shade of red. “Buck, please be nice to him.”

“Oh, I will, don’t worry,” Bucky said smiling and Steve worried about what Bucky would do, “You know me, I have a big mouth and all, plus I couldn’t believe the whole Captain America thing, which is wild.”

“Don’t,” Steve said giving Bucky a dirty look, he had survived the first two years of college without anyone knowing that his father was Joseph Rogers, the creator of Captain America, he wanted to survive the rest of his college career in the same way.

“What, you don’t like Cap?” Tony said a sad look in his eyes as if Steve had killed a puppy right in front of Tony, and of course Steve almost turned red from blushing, the nickname was new, no one had every called him Cap, or at least his fictional alter ego.

“No,” Bucky said and Steve knew that he was trying to save the conversation from going downhill. “It’s just that my friend over here shares his name, and people used to make fun of him for it.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t make fun of you for it, I like Captain America, although you must hate him if you got teased for having the same name as him, but don’t worry, I won’t tease you,” Tony said trying to make him feel better and Steve felt bad for the first time in his life about the whole Captain America thing.

“It’s alright,” Steve said smiling. “If you want, we’re going out to dinner later, you can join us,” smooth Rogers, really smooth, you’re supposed to distance yourself not ask him out. He wasn’t sure if it were possible to yell at himself in his own head but apparently it was happening.

“Don’t worry, I’m having dinner with my sister tonight, we have a tradition, but thanks,” Tony said before turning to his bed, and facing away from him before speaking to Bucky. “Oh, um is it James or Bucky?” Steve watched as Bucky talked to his roommate, not knowing why he already a little jealous that Bucky had Tony as a roommate.

“Buck, I’m going to go to the house, I need to go and get settled so I’ll come back later,” he said trying to give the two of them some space, and get out of his own head, while the image of the metal man on his mind, wondering if he could look him up to see more art, or if there’s an artist involved with him.

* * *

Tony knew it was awkward, his little crush on Captain America, hell his roommate’s friend looked like Cap, and Tony automatically had a crush on the guy, too bad, from the way he had seen Bucky walked the guy out, Tony knew it wasn’t meant to be. He was already in a relationship with Tony’s roommate, though it was nice to dream about falling for someone as nice as Steve had been especially since Steve hadn’t known that he was a Stark from the first moment that they had met. Tony of course had lied to his roommate about what he was going to do that night, he really just wasn’t ready to step out there and have dinner with someone he didn’t really know. Blame it on being poisoned and kidnapped growing up, it was a common thing with the Stark kids, though it hadn’t happened since he had been six, it was still possible, the poisoning happened in high school though he was never sure if that one had been meant for him or for Natasha. All Tony remembered was waking up in the hospital, after being in a coma for three days, and that two of the school’s biggest bullies had been expelled for it. So, it could have just been for Tony, he would never have known.

Instead of going to eat, he pulled a bottle of naked juice out of the mini fridge that Jarvis had given to him, “Master Thor said you would need it,” Jarvis had said before putting it in the car with the other one, because Nat had gotten one too. Tony started putting the padding on his bed, adding the really expensive pillow top to it and covering it all over again, before plopping down and smothering himself with his pillows. He hadn’t slept at all the night before, one he blamed on the new surroundings, and the fact that he had stayed up all night writing, but also because the bed was as thin as a board and felt like rocks had been placed in it. The first thing he had done in the morning was call an uber and ride off to the nearest mall, buying anything and everything he would need to be comfortable. Now it felt like heaven and he couldn’t be bothered to move for anyone.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, there was only two people in the whole place that knew what he was doing and even though he knew he should move and actually sit up and look at his phone, all he did was pull it out and turn his head, which isn’t the best position for reading text messages, but he didn’t care, he was too comfortable, the pillows were perfect and soft.

 _I know what you’re doing, and you’re not going to sit in your room all day_ , the message said, it was Natasha, of course it was Natasha and she was going to force him to move and he didn’t want to.

 _I’m tired, I didn’t sleep last night,_ he wrote, groaning as he moved to pull out his other arm which was pinned under his chest.

_Well too damn bad Tony, you’re going to come over, and we’re going to find out which is the best dining hall or I’m cutting your balls off._

She would too, and he knew it, for some reason their parents had indulged her in her love for knives and he couldn’t understand why. He knew it was because it meant that she could defend herself, but she when threatened him with bodily harm if he tried to get out of something then it was just going too far. His sister was a scary person sometimes and he never crossed her, not matter how tired he was because he valued his life.

_Fine, but I’m not doing anything tomorrow so you would have to leave me alone._

_Deal, I’ll come down at five,_ she wrote leaving him alone with his thoughts and his bed now very soft and comfortable bed. He set his phone to go off fifteen minutes before she would get there, so that he could at least get a few minutes of sleep if anything, all the while letting the bed take him forever.


	2. Chapter 2

If sleep was what he had wanted, he would have gotten at least a few peaceful minutes before Natasha would show up but in the end, it didn’t happen since Tony had been rudely awakened by Natasha’s insistent pounding on his door.

“Tony.... TOOONNNNYYYYY,” she called out, and he could hear the giggling from Nat’s roommate, their childhood friend Jan, which meant that they were going to torture him and never allow him his nap.

All he had wanted was a few minutes... was that too much to ask for, because apparently it was. He rolled over on the bed, wondering how long it would take for them to think that he wasn’t there, but he had made the mistake of answering the text messages from Natasha, so she knew that he was in the room. Getting up and moving off the bed was a task, one that he honestly didn’t care for, before walking towards the door.

Swinging it open he saw the two standing there all smiles, Jan had started at the school the year before and when she had heard that the youngest Starks were joining her, well she had opted to have Natasha as her roommate. Leaving Tony alone with his own roommate, who he still hadn’t had a chance to get to know, and honestly wasn’t in the mood to get to know him. It took too much work getting know people, and he just wanted to write fanfiction and build robots. Plus, he didn’t want the chance to develop a crush on his roommate’s boyfriend, it would cause too many problems.

“I thought you said five,” he said already complaining as Nat and Jan both plopped themselves down on his bed. “I wanted to get some sleep at least.”

“Tony,” Jan said giving him the most serious look. “When have we ever done anything that would give you any kind of break.”

“Plus, we know you have a hot roommate,” Natasha said to him, “Jan said so,” her sing songy tone reminded him of what they had been like at home when they had fawned over the guy, they had picked to play Captain America in the movies.

“Too bad, I think he’s already taken, I met his boyfriend earlier when they were dropping off his stuff,” Tony said before moving behind them and smothering himself with his own pillows, the reminder of Steve’s baby blue eyes following him.

“You mean Steve,” Jan said pulling the pillow away from Tony’s face, “They’re not together, I mean they were, in high school or something, James told me one time when we were in class together, but when they came here they found out that there were other people in the world, and they broke it off. They had been best friends since they were kids, and from what I heard they had come from a really small town, you know the ones you see in movies where there’s literally 50 people in the entire class.”

Tony could feel hope bloom in his chest at hearing this, “But I heard that Sharon and Steve had a thing going on since last semester or something,” she finished and with it killing all the hope he had for anything, this is why he didn’t want to get attached to anyone, he didn’t want that hope to linger. He had tried in high school, dated around, got together with two different girls, one used him and the other had been an exchange student who had moved back to Japan after the semester had been over. Both had broken his heart, and he couldn’t deal with that, he was supposed to be the future of Stark Industries’ Research and Development, not falling in love and getting his heart broken.

“Whatever,” Tony said wrangling his pillow back and covering his face with it not wanting to let them see his disappointment. “I’m just going to write my stories and ignore the world until classes start on Monday anyway.”

“Nope, not today, you promised,” Nat said leaning back onto him. “We’re having dinner today as in now,” she was giving him that look where anything and everything she said was law. “Jan says the best dining hall is the one we’re next to and we’re going.”

“Do I have to,” he grumbled into the pillow. “I didn’t sleep last night, this bed was too hard.”

“Yeah well, Thor had warned us, and Jarvis had wanted to take us shopping for things we would need, but you had been too engrossed in that story of yours to notice and look where we are now,” she said attempting to roll on him enough that he would give up and move. She had always done this, even when she had become more popular and outgoing, she had always rolled on top of him until he agreed to go out. “Come on Tony.”

“Fine... fine,” he grumbled pushing her off and getting off of his newly comfortable bed, “But I need to go to the bathroom first, so give me a few minutes.”

If he was in the bathroom a little longer than he should have been, it didn’t matter, he was tired and now hungry, though he was glad that he didn’t have to deal with the fact that his roommate was in a relationship with the guy who only hours ago had caught Tony’s attention, he wasn’t sure how far he could trust Jan’s word at the moment. It was only because sometimes people broke up, and realized later that they should have stayed together. Tony didn’t want to risk trying anything and getting his heart broken, so he filed it away and moved on.

They did have dinner at the dining hall, talking for two hours, getting caught up on what they did over the summer, Jan had gone to Europe with her parents, while Tony and Nat had spent it in the Hamptons on the beach. They talked about their classes, and both girls constantly reminded Tony that he needed to get out more and stay away from writing all of the time, he humored them but, in the end, he knew that he would keep writing. He was a triple major in some ways, he was working on his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and programming, while getting a B.A. in writing. He had already tested out of most of his classes because he had taken a lot of his college courses while in high school, he hadn’t needed the prerequisite courses at all, so all he needed to do was concentrate on his degrees, he had a set schedule for everything so he needed to stay on track for that. He couldn’t have a relationship, even a crush wasn’t optional, it was the only rule he was going to give himself, because he was afraid of someone hurting him again.

Waving Natasha and Jan away, he walked to his dorm, with the sole purpose of falling asleep and resting, normally he could stay up for days fueled on nothing but coffee, but he knew he couldn’t mess this up, his father would be furious if he did. He was already furious at Tony because he had chosen a smaller school over a big-name Ivy League college. So, just for this one night he was going to sleep, because there would be days when he needed to get something done, he wasn’t going to abandon all of his principals just because he’s not at home.

* * *

Even with his wish to go to bed and actually sleep, it had been a week of first classes, and a tired Tony, because his roommate came in at all hours of the night, the guy worked part-time at one of the restaurants off campus, so he also smelled like freshly baked bread for some reason. Tony usually got a few hours of sleep in before his roommate came in a jarred him awake by kicking down the door as he came into the room, and because Tony is the kind of person that once he’s up he can’t go back to bed, well the whole thing messed with his already lacking sleep schedule. So, he was happy when Thursday came, and his first writing course was well on its way. Because he wore contacts and was well groomed when he took press photos with his family, no one in class or the school knew he was the same Tony as his public persona. Blame it on his unruly hair, and the glasses, he’s was blind without them, and though his mother and sister had both told him that he could get Lasik eye surgery, Tony had a thing about people putting needles or knives of any kind near his eyes. He was now very grateful for having to wear them, people didn’t point at him, hell the only person who had realized it was him was James, or Bucky as he liked to be called.

Since Bucky hadn’t let him sleep much, and Tony had done the homework the moment he had gotten his syllabus’s, or is it syllabi, over the summer, he was way ahead of everyone and used his class time to write his story. This class on the other hand, he hadn’t studied for ahead of time, mainly because he wanted to be surprised. He actually loved writing as much as he loved building things or coding, but his father told him that he couldn’t pursue it as a career. He was allowed to have it as a major as long as he kept up with his real coursework, because his father didn’t want to be disappointed in his son. Natasha was majoring in business, and international studies with a minor in Russian, because she had wanted to know more about the country she had come from. Their father was proud of her, Tony on the other hand, picked writing and his father broke a glass, which had barely missed Tony’s head, before smashing against the wall.

That was the last time Tony had shared anything like that with his father, his mother knew everything, eventually calming down dear old dad, but in the end the damage had been done. That night Tony had started on his first robot, a little desk helper bot named Butterfingers, mainly because he had been eating a butterfingers candy at the time he had finished. He hadn’t shown his dad, and the little bot now sat on his desk here at college, helping him when he was working on a new project, whenever he was stuck on his writing, or even just eating a granola bar. The little bot cleaned up after him, sweeping away the crumbs from Tony’s snacks or pushing away the wads of paper balls until they were in the trash bin on the side of his desk. She was Tony’s first real friend outside of his family and the friends he had made in school or those that had associated with him just because he was a Stark. Butterfingers was Tony’s child and he was alright with that. Maybe one day he could make the little girl some brothers too.

Anyways, back to his first writing class, he was the youngest person in the class, and he was alright with it, he had to get special permission to be in the class too, even with him skipping everything else, because the professor was very adamant that the student weren’t encumbered with a heavy course load. But it was also one of the school’s most prestigious professors, a New York Times bestselling author named Phil Coulson, he had written several books about a team of agents within a government agency, most of the novels diving deep into the corruption of government and the fragility of human relationships. Never knowing who to trust, Tony had loved the books, because he knew that you couldn’t trust everyone you met, there was always someone who had an ulterior motive. Sometimes he thought about Natasha as one of the agents, but that was only because she was very sneaky and shared one particular characteristic with one of the main characters, and that was her love of knives.

“You look a little young to be here,” the guy next to him said as he pulled out what looked like one of those leather Barnes and Noble notebooks, the ones with the parchment paper that had that string around it. Tony had one like it filled to the brim with story ideas and codes for an artificial intelligence that he was developing, though the code was hidden in the stories because he didn’t trust his father enough after the man had patented something Tony had made as a Stark Industries design without Tony’s permission. The guy was giving him this smile as he pulled out his pen and a bottle of water.

“I’m a freshman,” Tony said looking down at his notebook, it was a plain book nothing special, mainly because he didn’t want anyone to know that he came from money, especially since they didn’t know who he was, and a sure fire way for anyone to know was the notebooks he usually had with him most of which were custom made. “I got permission to be here because Professor Coulson isn’t going to teach next fall and I really wanted to take the class while he was here.”

“Ah, well that’s cool, usually the freshmen are too intimidated to take an upper level class so soon, some think that it’s too much too soon, most of the advisors try to keep them away too,” the guy said before sticking his hand out. “I’m Ty,” he said to Tony that smile plastered on his face.

“Tony,” he said answering back taking his hand and shaking it, he wasn’t going to tell the guy that all of his classes were upper level classes, he just wanted to be a normal student without anyone knowing anything about him, genius or otherwise.

“Alright everyone,” the professor said as he walked in through the door, getting the classes attention Tony looking at the professor with an excited glee rushing through him. “My name is Professor Phil Coulson and welcome to Fiction Writing.”

The class was an exciting one, even on the first day, they talked about their first writing assignment which was due at the end of September, a collaborative assignment that was their midterm assignment, as well as the final project, which Tony wasn’t sure he was ready for, and it was only the first week. He could write ten thousand words any day of the week, but it’s usually in fanfiction, he’s never written an original piece like the one that the professor was asking for. He had said up to ten thousand words, but Tony wasn’t even sure what he should write about, he wasn’t sure of anything at the moment. It was exciting and he had made a friend so that was great too.

“This class isn’t going to be an easy one, those of you who have spoken to me before hand or have taken any of my other course know this,” the professor told them before the class ended sternly looking at all of them, Tony knew that he was trying to weed out those who were on the fence about being there. “If you want to get out of the class, I suggest you do it now while you still can, if you want to stay well, I’ll see you next week.”

As he stood there gathering his papers, Tony watched as students walked up to him just to speak about things that hadn’t been discussed or asking about his grading criteria. Tony was just in awe of the whole thing it wasn’t every day where he would have the chance to meet one of his heroes.

“Hey,” Ty said as everyone left packed up to leave. “I work in the library most nights, so if you want to come over and brainstorm, you can keep me company,” it was nice to make a friend the first day of the class, especially since he was a freshman, at least in their eyes.

“Sure,” Tony answered though he wasn’t sure if it would happen before he got settled, especially with everything going on during the first week of classes. “It won’t be this week, because I want to get settled in and well not get lost, but I’ll stop by when I have the chance.”

“Cool, we could even get a jump start on that midterm assignment, if you want to be partners,” Ty said to him, giving him the biggest smile Tony was sure the guy could have, it was disarming for some reason.

All Tony could do was nod as he walked out of the room alongside Ty, “Sure I’ll see you there,” he said before heading back to his dorm, he had a story to write, one where Iron Man and Captain America were front and center, one where he didn’t have to worry about writing for class or thinking about his projects just yet, and after he had to head to the robotics lab, because he didn’t want to accidentally set his room on fire trying to make Butterfingers a brother.

To his surprise, when he walked in Steve was sitting on Bucky’s bed sending Tony a megawatt smile, which honestly should be illegal in any country, Tony wasn’t even sure why he was in the room in the first place, Tony hadn’t seen Bucky since he had gone to class earlier so he didn’t know how Steve had gotten into the room.

“Do I want to know why you broke into my room?” Tony asked putting his bag on his bed before going to his desk to turn on his computer. He needed to finish the chapter he had been writing before dinner, or else Nat was going to show up and force him to be human, which he was trying to avoid, and if he was in the robotics lab then he would be free, mainly because it was the one place where she wasn’t allowed and couldn’t follow him.

“Bucky gave me a key,” Steve said that smile still on his face, his blue eyes distracting Tony enough before the words that Steve had said could sink in.

“He gave you a key, to our room, why???” Tony wasn’t sure why he was angry, maybe it’s because his roommate let his ex-boyfriend or boyfriend or whatever, have a key to their room, where Tony kept all of his stuff, or it could have been the crush he already had on the blonde in front of him, and he wasn’t sure if he was dating someone, or single. He didn’t know what to do or where to go, gathering his laptop and his writing notebook and throwing it in his backpack, before rushing towards the door probably hadn’t been the best idea in the world.

There was a moment as Steve watched Tony gather his stuff and shove it into his bag, where Steve was certain that he had messed up somehow.

“Tony you don’t have to....” he had started to say before the door slammed shut, he felt bad all of a sudden, he knew that he had been invading Tony’s space, but Bucky had told him to wait for him in his room and then shoved the key in his hand.

“And this is why I should have just waited in the dining hall,” Steve said to himself before plopping down on Bucky’s bed feeling like a total heel for being there in the first place.

From the moment he had seen the pictures on Tony’s side of the room, he dreamt of a man in a metal suit, hell he had sketched it, the image on Bucky’s roommates wall was something special and he knew it. Even when he had looked it up all he had found were people trying to make armored suits, nothing like the one he had seen. It felt wrong now to look at the images, now that Tony had rushed off angry at him for being there, but he did so anyway, hoping to find out why this man was so close to the persona he had hated all of his life. It was strange but seeing Captain America from Tony’s point of view was changing his own view of the character that he grown up hating. Maybe it was because for so long, even with Bucky’s character being the Winter Soldier, a former nemesis and now sometimes ally of Captain America, or even his brother Peter’s character being there, well the comics never felt full to him, it was ideology mostly, though he knew plenty of people who loved the character, but it was still too much to live up to.

But on Tony’s wall there was someone very different when it came to Captain America, maybe a real friend, one that Steve had always wished existed. He had friends in real life, but for Captain America, he really only had allies, even with Bucky being a character in the story or Sam’s Falcon, there were days where it didn’t feel like it was real, because they were his real life friends. Steve studied the image at the center of all of Tony’s pictures, it was a drawing of Captain America, and from the name underneath one of the images, Iron Man, as the Captain held on tight to the other man while they flew through the air, not far from them he could see Stark Tower, the old building above Grand Central Station, the sun setting in the background as the stars slowly made their appearance. It was a great picture, though he wished that he had been the one to draw it for some reason.

The sound of the door slamming against the wall alerted him to Bucky’s arrival, “Alright punk, let’s go,” Bucky said as he held the door open with his foot.

“Why do you do that? You can’t afford to replace that door,” Steve said quickly standing away from Tony’s side of the room, feeling self-conscience about being there especially when Tony had left the room angry.

“I have stuff in my hands,” Bucky threw his backpack on his bed along with a stack of books. “Let’s go to the dining hall and eat so that we can deal with that math homework already.”

“You’re the one that picked the class,” Steve said picking up his backpack. “I don’t even know why I agreed to it, I could have taken an extra history class.”

“Because I’m going to make you suffer right along with me,” Bucky stuck out his tongue and Steve wanted to cut it off just for annoying him.

They were walking down the hallway when he noticed Tony sitting in a corner near the stairs, as if he had been waiting for Steve to leave. Their eyes met and Steve was certain that if he could have asked the guy out, he would have, there was something drawing him towards Tony Stark, but he could also tell that he was making the guy uncomfortable. Maybe Steve would try and become friends first before trying anything else, since it was better to fix the small problem that he had caused before attempting anything else.

“You can go back,” he said pulling away from Bucky and turning towards Tony. “And... Tony I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been in there alone,” he felt bad for running Tony off, especially since Tony had been right about it also being his room. Bucky waiting outside looking around for him before spotting him, Steve held out his hand telling Bucky to give him a minute.

“Listen, if you want to wait in my room for your boyfriend, you can, but I would prefer if he hadn’t given you a key,” Tony told him, he knew that something had gone wrong at some point because he wasn’t dating anyone and while the words were cutting into him, he knew it was a violation of Tony’s privacy when he had been alone in the room.

“Yeah... sure,” he wasn’t sure why this whole thing felt awkward to him, it was just a guy, well one that had caught his attention but at the moment it felt like he had no right to want anything with Tony. “I’ll make sure to wait until Bucky is around,” Steve said softly. “And he’s not my boyfriend, he’s just my best friend, hopefully you and I can become friends too at some point.”

Before Tony could say anything else Steve left, he didn’t want to overstay his welcome, hopefully he could find something that they had in common, something that Tony would feel comfortable talking with Steve about. He wanted to at least make it up to Tony, and become his friend if anything.

Steve didn’t tell Bucky about it, he didn’t want Bucky overreacting over Tony being uncomfortable, because if there was one thing that Steve knew was that his best friend had always been overprotective of him. Not so much anymore, but when they were kids and Steve had been sick a lot, Bucky had always protected him, even when Steve got into fights with bullies three times his size. It wouldn’t matter that Tony was his roommate, if Steve was offended Bucky would fight anyone. And this wasn’t what he wanted to happen because it wasn’t Tony’s fault that it had happened, if he thought about it, well it was mostly Bucky’s fault but, in the end, Steve could only blame himself.

“I need to tell you man,” Bucky said pulling Steve out of his thoughts about the whole Tony problem currently taking over his brain. “I’m seriously in love, I didn’t know it until I saw her.”

“I don’t want to know about who you’re talking about, because your relationships don’t last that long to begin with,” Steve answered, ever since they broke up, Bucky’s had a string of relationships and random hook-ups, with a number of people, that honestly Steve couldn’t understand. He didn’t believe Bucky when he said he was in love, because Bucky fell in love every three seconds with a number of people.

“No, this one’s different I swear,” Bucky argued shaking Steve’s arm while he said it and why they were friends he wasn’t sure at all when Bucky acted like a love-sick puppy.

“I’ll believe it when I see it, if this one last past your five-date rule, then I’ll consider it,” he said pulling his arm away. No one lasted past Bucky’s five date rule, because if they didn’t keep him interested after five dates then Bucky knew that it wasn’t worth the effort. “Until then there’s no way I’m listening to you talk about someone Buck.”

“Whatever man,” Bucky said pushing Steve as they both walked off towards the dining hall.

* * *

He hadn’t meant to get snappy with Steve, really, it was just that when you’re trying keep yourself from falling for someone, well they pop up everywhere. Sighing to himself Tony took his stuff back to his room, grabbed a smoothie from the fridge and a granola bar and started working on the chapter he had been working on the night before. Choosing to ignore his phone so that Nat wouldn’t track him down for the day, she had been trying to get him to socialize more, but he just wanted to work on his things and nothing more. Even with the guilt of being a dick to Steve gnawing at him, he just wanted to wallow for a little while.

It took him two hours to finish, the chapter was around twenty thousand words, well he could have gotten carried away writing it, but hell he only had one shot at this story, and he wanted to pack in as much as possible. When he was finished, he grabbed another granola bar and shoved it in his bag with a cold brew Frappuccino before heading out to the robotics lab to work on his bot, all the while making sure that Natasha didn’t see him. Which was hard considering she knew him better then all of their siblings put together, there was also the fact that he wasn’t very good at being sneaky.

He worked on his first writing assignment that night, frequently getting messages from Ty, which was nice, they were becoming fast friends so maybe Tony could hide in the library when Ty was working. They had only talked by text, or during class, Tony often rushing off towards his next class, because his father had made sure that his schedule was packed so that Tony wouldn’t stray from where he was supposed to be going in his life. The messages were a reprieve, his first college friend outside of knowing his roommate, his own sister and their childhood friend. At least it fit Natasha’s criteria that he needed to socialize, so that was one very huge upside to the whole thing.


	3. Chapter 3

**_In the Ice_ **

_By **IamIronMan**_

_The fight had lasted over an hour, and had unwillingly thrown him across the world, landing him in a frozen tundra, his suit was still functional, but his AI wasn’t responding. He would have to get home blind with nothing but the setting sun guiding his way. It was cold, the under suit not shielding him enough from the cold, he would have to get a thicker fabric or invent one that would hold up better to the elements. He stood there, waiting for his systems to reboot, so that his AI would turn back on and help him get into his satellites so that he would know where he had landed._

_The only thing keeping him warm at the moment, was him walking around in circles, though he could see his footsteps they were quickly being covered by snow. He started walking forward, hoping that he landed somewhere that had people living nearby, when the ice beneath him began to crack._

_“This isn’t good,” he said trying to run forward the dead weight of the armor holding him back, the internal system were still booting up, but he had run out of time, running as fast as he could while inside of a metal suit wasn’t ideal and he could tell that he wasn’t going to make it. He didn’t want to die in the arctic tundra, it was to reminiscent of that fabled hero he had grown up hearing about, Captain America._

_There was something black in the distance, he hoped it was a rock because at this point it was his only hope of surviving, and that was where he was running towards, hoping that it would offer him some hope of surviving. But once he got close, he felt the thing slowly pull him up off the ground. It wasn’t a rock, it was a plane, and not one he’s ever seen before, it was sleek but it didn’t look like any of the fighter jets that he normally saw from the military. It was strange, he hadn’t heard of any downed military planes recently not from his government at least, but the plane had saved his life so he wasn’t going to complain._

_The cold was causing his the armor to slow down, the joints were sticking from the icing, it was something that he was going to have to look into when he got back to his workshop, but he knew that as long as the arc reactor, that powered the suit, continued to work, then he wouldn’t have any real problems. Using his replusors he made a hole in the plane’s hull, hoping that the plane would shield him from the weather and keep him warm while the system finally booted up. Once inside he realized that he was wrong, even though it was still cold inside of it, it was still warmer than being out on the ice. Though he wasn’t expecting to find what he did once he was in the plane, because at the console in the front of the plane, was a man frozen in a block of ice, at his feet was the very familiar shield of Captain America._

_“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Iron Man said staring at the first superhero frozen in front of him. The man had been a myth all of his life, he hadn’t been sure that he existed at all growing up, but there he was looking like an ice cube._

* * *

Tony’s first few weeks of school are more or less him hiding in the robotics lab from Natasha, or writing in the library, usually fueled by whatever snacks he had hidden away in his room and all the coffee he could get. On the nights he did get some sleep, he would usually get woken up by Bucky coming in from work, and it would take him hours before he was passed out in the robotics lab or wherever he could find, or a hiding place he had found.

He was half asleep in his writing class, he knew that he wouldn’t survive like this much longer, and he could have skipped today and gotten some sleep, but Professor Coulson was giving out their second assignment while also giving back their first. Tony was surprised to see an A on his paper but a B- on Ty’s. The other boy wasn’t mad at him, just smiling at the fact that he had gotten such a high grade. Tony did the first thing he could and hid his paper so that it wouldn’t be a reminder of who he was. His name had been plastered on the paper, but Tony always smudged it enough so that no one could read it. He knew that he was on borrowed time when it came to his name, the fact that he looked nothing like his pictures helped, but eventually people would notice. He’s amazed that his roommate had been the only one to realize that he’s the actual Tony Stark. Though he still couldn’t figure out how Natasha had stayed out of the spotlight when she still looked the same.

“So, I was thinking,” Ty said as they all started to pack up after class. “That you could come over to the Library today and we could work on the midterm project. Get an early start on it and everything.”

Tony had only been thinking about sleeping that night, but he knew that this project was huge compared to the first one. “Sure,” he said knowing that another sleepless night awaited him.

“I’ll be working in the stacks around seven, usually I’m in the second floor towards the back, so if you find a seat around there, I can find you easily.”

“Your boss is okay with you not actually working?”

“They don’t really care, mainly because they leave around five so it’s only the student workers until we close.”

“Oh,” he said thinking that it sounded a little more like chaos than anything else, looking at the time, he couldn’t help but notice that he was going to be late to his next class. “I’ll head over after I finish with everything I have to do.”

Ty smiled at him as if Tony had given him the keys to the world and Tony couldn’t help but blush, it was nice to not be a Stark for once. “I’ll see you there,” Ty said before Tony waved him off and rushed off towards his next class.

By the end of the day he was ready to pass out, there wasn’t enough coffee in the world to keep him up, but he knew that Ty would be waiting for him and he wasn’t going to let the guy down, not when he was being so nice to him. Plus, Tony wanted to see what they were going to write, he hadn’t worked with anyone after Natasha stopped writing with him, so it would be great to have someone to bounce ideas off of for once. Sitting down at his desk he pulled out a granola bar and a cold brew coffee, all the while packing up his laptop and his special projects notebook, in case he had an idea for his robot, or even the A.I. he had been coding.

Bucky came into the room dropping his bag on the floor before sitting at his bed for a moment, Tony noticed that he wasn’t the only one who was exhausted, it took the guy two seconds before he was up again digging for clothes and going off to the showers. It was weird to see his roommate there so early on in the day, the two of them rarely interacted with one another, but Tony ignored the interruption and kept typing ideas into his laptop.

“Do you have some weird eating disorder,” Bucky asked him after he had come back from showering his hair up in a bun while parts were damp from the shower. “All you ever eat is what’s in that fridge which I noticed is only packed in with smoothies and coffee, and those weird granola bars you hide under your bed.”

“I eat,” Tony said in his own defense, but he knew that without Jarvis to force him to eat he usually just hid out somewhere and ate whatever was nearby, or his lunches with Natasha and Jan, which only happened every other day, because he didn’t want the two of them to track him down.

“Tony, seriously you don’t, and that shit isn’t healthy either,” Bucky said as he pulled out Tony’s nearly full garbage can, which was mostly wrappers at this point, which honestly was probably a bad thing, but he’s too tired to actually move lately so who can blame him. “I don’t think that I’ve ever seen you go to the dining hall.”

“So, what it to you, it’s not like you actually care,” he said in his own defense, though he knew that if Nat had found out, well she would kick his ass and then call Rhodey to come down there and kick his ass again, and of course when Rhodey was finished he would bring Pepper up there to kill him with her stupid heels, which Tony brought for her as a graduation present. Those things had a metal heel, so of course it would go right through his head.

“I may not know you that well, but I’m almost certain that you don’t actually eat, hell you usually sneak out right after I get home, though I’m never sure where the hell you go, so I doubt you sleep a lot too, since I can see those dark circles around your eyes.”

Tony wanted to argue with the guy, but honestly he was too tired, “Listen, you’re loud when you get home, or it could just be that I’m a very light sleeper, but I blame that on having siblings who are little shits, even when they’re older than I am, but once I’m awake it takes me a while to get back to sleep so I go to the robotics lab and I work, or I hang out at the library for a little while.”

Bucky stood there for a moment just looking at him before sighing and grabbing his jacket, “Come on, we’re going to go eat first, that way we can get to know each other, and maybe afterwards you can take a nap or something, because you look dead on your feet.”

Honestly speaking, Tony just wanted to pass out at that moment, but his roommate was right, he barely had any decent meals since starting school, well outside of his lunches with Jan and Nat, so maybe some food would do him some good. All he did was nod at Bucky and grab the Junior ROTC sweater he had stolen from Rhodey, before his best friend had gone off to college. The thing was too large for Tony’s small frame, but it reminded him of his friend, so it was the best thing in the world. Of course, it went to Tony’s knees and he had to roll up the sleeves, because Rhodey is a giant compared to him, but it was what he needed at the moment.

The two of them walked over to the dining hall, Tony was quiet for a moment, it was a Friday so most of the people in their dorm were getting ready for one party or another, the dining hall wasn’t full, so they found a table near where everyone came in from the food line. Tony had a plate filled with fries and another with two giant cheeseburgers that had ketchup dripping out of it, along with a giant cup of coffee that had Bucky looking at him like he was crazy.

“If you don’t get to sleep after this well it’s your own fault for it,” Bucky told him while pointing at the coffee, before sighing and digging into a plate of mac and cheese. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, but what’s a Stark doing at this school anyway?”

Tony had just taken a bite of his burger as he heard the question, he almost choked on it for a second and then it took him a minute to swallow it down, because honestly, he was starved, and he was going to take his damn time, plus there was that whole breathing thing that he needed to do. “Well, I’m not the only one, my sister is here too,” he said outing Natasha to his roommate, but since she said he was hot then she probably wouldn’t mind. “But anyway, I just didn’t want to go somewhere that my brothers had already been, unlike them I have to make a name out of myself without all the perks of being a Stark.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I picked this school, not my dad or my mom, my three oldest brothers had gone to Ivy League schools, Clint went to MIT, Thor went to Harvard and Loki went to Yale, so there was a lot to live up to.”

“Who picked their names,” Bucky said and when Tony just rolled his eyes at him, he continued. “Sorry but they sound more like Norse gods than regular rich kids.”

“I’m the only one in my family that’s not adopted, Thor and Loki are brothers and their parents had been friends with my parents when they died so of course my parents adopted them, after that Clint came along, and then my mom wanted a girl so they adopted my sister only to find out they had finally conceived so I was raised as an almost twin to my sister.”

“I think I’m happy that I’m an only child if you have that many siblings, but then again I did grow up with Steve and his crazy family, so I don’t really know what to think,” Bucky said grabbing Tony’s attention, because telling anyone saying anything about Steve to him was like giving a kid candy.

“And how many siblings does he have?” Tony asked genuinely curious, because Steve looked like he was born to be America’s golden boy, all apple pie and awe shucks.

“His oldest brother is Bruce, he works in medical technology and research, then there’s Hank who is a doctor, Scott is an engineer,” Bucky said and honestly Tony was amazed, even Steve’s brothers were smart. “Then comes Steve, and after that there’s Peter and Harley who are the youngest and still in school.”

“Jesus he has five brothers, and I thought my parents were crazy,” Tony said though he was happy to have had siblings, because it meant that he was never lonely and that no one forgot his birthday, though it did happen one year, but that was because that year a lot of things had happened and Tony was just happy that his mother was alive so he hadn’t cared much. Though they surprised him later on with a trip to Italy so that his mother could recover. It had been the best summer ever.

“That’s not the half of it, he has twin sisters on the way, his mother found out that she was pregnant over the summer and told him before left for school this year the kids are due at the end of the year or was it January... I’m not really sure,” Bucky said while his mouth was half full of food, which would be gross to most people, but Thor had been like that when he had lived at home so Tony was used to it. “It’s a risky one though since she’s in her late-forties. His older brothers are really close in age, I think there’s only like nine months between them all, they could practically be twins or triplets or something.”

“And here I thought my family was big,” Tony said with a smile, “It’s nice, you know to never really be alone.”

“I’m an only child so I wouldn’t really know, but since I was always at Steve’s house, it was like having an insanely large extended family,” Bucky told him with a smile, and it made Tony wonder the why of his relationship with Steve and why it hadn’t worked out according to Jan. “What are you planning on majoring in?”

“Oh well, I’m doing three different things, mechanical engineering, programming, and writing, well the writing is more for me, the others are because I like making things and it’ll prepare me for my future because of course I’m a Stark so I would have to work at the company when I finish up school,” he said rambling, but he could see the surprised look on his roommate’s face. “What too little?”

“More like too crazy, how are you majoring in three different things?”

“Well, technically I’m a certified genius, but it’s not something I really tell people,” he said, but mainly to himself, he had been bullied for being a nerd in school, for a lot of things actually because of the glasses of course being shorter than his own brothers one of which had been a huge football star at the school, the whole thing made him wary to tell people about it. “I’ve done most of my prerequisite courses while I was in high school, so I only really have to concentrate on my major courses.”

“I’ve never heard about this, why wasn’t it on the news,” Bucky said looking at him astonished, and well of course he would be, Tony didn’t really publicize himself because his family had money and people would always take advantage of that.

“My mom wanted us to have normal lives,” especially after the last kidnapping. “Well as normal as a bunch of Stark kids could have, so it was kept out of the public, I actually wanted to have a mathematics major added but she told me to slow down, though I might still do it later on.”

“You’re insane, no wonder you don’t sleep, geez, I feel like I’m going to have to keep you fed.”

“I eat, I swear, also I finished the majority of the coursework over the summer, I was bored and did everything, so I’m actually freer than you think, it’s just my writing class that I have work for, other than that I’m tinkering or writing.”

“You put me to shame, and I’m not saying that as a joke either, I feel like I have to run a few laps or something just to try and catch up to you.”

“Yeah well, I had a lot of competition as a kid, three brothers would do that to you, but there were things that they excelled at and I didn’t, all I did was find ways for them to be even better at what they like to do, it’s why they’re good at their jobs now.”

“You said you have a sister too,” Bucky looked intrigued. “I think I’ve seen pictures of her, or at least from faraway, honestly you have a more public face than her, well except when you look like.... well that.”

“What,” he said fixing his glasses and pushed the little curl away from his face. “I’m blind without them, and I like that no one notices me, it makes it easier to just be me, and not what my father wants me to be.”

“I understand that,” Bucky said with a smile.

“Can we talk about something else?” Tony really wanted to move away from the topic of himself.

“Sure, anything you want.”

“Um... well,” Tony knew that this was a loaded question, because he wanted to ask about Steve, but instead moved on to something else. “Why a freshman roommate?”

“Really, that again, I swear Steve keeps asking me that too and it’s so stupid,” Bucky said before going off on a tirade about his scholarship and how he had wanted a single but there hadn’t been any. It was nice to learn more about his roommate, they talked about other things like Bucky’s job, and the girl he was crushing on, which made Tony laugh because he knew from the description that the guy was talking about Natasha and she would eat him alive. He wasn’t going to interfere, it was up to Nat to say yes or no, though Tony didn’t want to tell Bucky that it was his sister either, because if there was one thing that Tony wanted to avoid it was being in the middle of that.

* * *

Sitting outside of Bucky and Tony’s room was the only surefire way of not having an angry Tony yelling at him again, or at least one that hopefully wouldn’t run away at the sight of him. Of course, he was surprised to see Tony and Bucky laughing as they walked towards him, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of jealousy bubble up at the sight of the two of them together, but he squashed it. They barely knew one another so there was no reason to be jealous at all they barely knew each other, Steve couldn’t claim Tony’s affections, hell he hadn’t had a decent conversation with the guy. But from the times that he’s been in their room he’s become obsessed with the character that Tony had on the wall and wondered why he’d become so infatuated with its creator.

He had looked up the character a few times, it had taken him a while to realize that it was a part of a fanfiction that had been written by someone named IamIronMan, which meant that Tony read it as well and loved the series. After that Steve couldn’t help himself, he started drawing the character, even if he hadn’t read any of the stories. Instead imagining himself as the character that his father created for him and creating little comics about his adventures with Iron Man who had started to look more and more like Tony. From that it just turned to him wondering about his attraction to Tony and things like that, because he hadn’t really felt anything for anyone since his and Bucky’s break up.

“Hey Stevie,” Bucky said as he reached the room. “Why are you sitting out here, I gave you the key so that you wouldn’t have to.”

“I didn’t want to make Tony uncomfortable by being in the room without you there,” Steve said and couldn’t help the shy smile that he sent Tony.

“Well let’s finish this homework and then go to the party, I have to ask someone out on a date today, hopefully she’ll say yes,” Bucky said smiling at Tony as he said it, before going into the room.

Tony held himself back for a moment looking at Steve which made him feel self-conscience for a moment, before Tony said, “Thanks,” and walked into the room.

“No problem,” he couldn’t help but mumble, he wasn’t sure why he was shy about the whole thing, but when he saw Tony packing up his stuff, he wanted to stop him, he wanted a moment to get to know him a little better, even for just a second.

“Where are you off too?” Bucky asked before Steve could even try to ask anything.

“I have a library date with one of my classmates from writing class, so I won’t be in the way tonight,” Tony said to them before heading towards the door, making Steve wish that he could try and say something. “I’ll see you later.”

Steve got up without thinking, he needed a moment, so he just got up and followed Tony to the door and walking with him towards the dorm’s back doors surprising Tony. “Hey Tony... um...,” he said stopping the younger man for a moment. “If you get out late call me, I’ll come and pick you up,” he couldn’t understand what compelled him to say that, Tony had said date, which meant that the other person would want to walk back together. He felt so stupid, but he said it and now he wanted to commit to it.

“That’s nice of you Steve, but I don’t even have your number, and I heard Bucky, you guys are going to a party tonight.”

“No, I’m not,” Steve said in his defense, he didn’t want to go to that stupid party. “Bucky’s going, I’m actually going to go home and sleep since I have tomorrow off for once.”

“Oh,” Tony whispered, but before he could say anything else Steve pulled out a piece of paper and put his number on it.

“Just in case, call me,” he said to Tony with a smile before walking back to Bucky and Tony’s room, standing at the door for a minute. “See you later,” he smiled before closing the door, hope that this would be the first step before they would become friends at least.

Walking back into the room, he could see the look that Bucky was giving him, they hadn’t discussed anything about Steve liking Tony, but for all he knew it was because Steve hadn’t told him.

“What was that about,” Bucky asked him as Steve sat down on Bucky’s bed.

“Nothing much, just wanted to apologize to him again,” Steve said hoping to sound all calm and casual about it. “We got off on the wrong foot, so I thought I’d try to be nicer to him, plus I feel bad about the whole Captain America thing.”

“I find it a little weird,” Bucky said an amused glint in his eye before eyeing the posters on Tony’s side of the room, “Hell I found it weird when your dad put me in the comic too, because at first I was your best friend in the story, then the brainwashed villain, and now I’m your friend again.”

“The villain thing only happened because we broke up, so don’t blame anyone but me about that,” Steve remembered being heartbroken at first, they had been weeks away from prom when Bucky had ended it, this was after one trip to the school because they wanted the incoming freshmen to get to know the campus, and it had taken all summer and the first half of their first semester before Steve had been comfortable enough to be Bucky’s friend again. His father had taken his heartbreak and used it in the story by killing off Bucky’s character and having him come back as the Winter Soldier.

“Yeah well remind me to never piss off your dad, I don’t want to be in the story as a dead soldier either,” Bucky said before changing his shirt and looking at himself in the mirror.

Steve couldn’t help but smile, he had never seen Bucky try so hard to impress a girl, usually anyone he was interested in would fall all over themselves to get his attention. It was weird to think of Bucky having to work on getting someone’s attention.

“So, what’s the girl’s name?” Steve asked curious about the person who had caught his friend’s heart.

“According to what I overheard it’s was Nat, so I’m guessing it’s short for Natasha or Natalie or something,” Bucky answered a grin on his face. “She’s perfect Steve, I swear it, but I’ve never had to work this hard to get someone’s attention, so I’m afraid that all this work would go to waste and she won’t like me at all.”

“Yeah well maybe it’s time that someone made you work for it you’ve had it easy for far too long.”

“Yeah whatever you punk,” Bucky threw one’s of Tony’s pillows at him before grabbing his leather jacket. “Now come on, I’m dragging you to this party, Sharon is going to be there and she’s been asking for you for a while.”

Sharon was a nice girl, Steve knew this, but for some reason he wasn’t attracted to her, it could also be because he’s seen the way that Sam looks at her and he didn’t want to be in the middle of Sam’s crush on her. Even when Sam had tried to get over it he was still pining for Sharon, and honestly it wasn’t there for him, that same feeling he was having over Tony. He thought about Sharon, and then about Tony, his mind automatically turning its attention to Tony who he wanted to get to know better. Hopefully they’ll find some middle ground at some point.

* * *

The paper in his hand was warm, it smelled like coffee and Steve which was an odd combination to have, because he thought of Steve as someone who drank sports drinks and water. He couldn’t help but feel a little happy over getting Steve’s number, he quickly pulled out his phone and typed it in with a grin on his face before walking towards library. He folded the paper Steve had given him and put it in his wallet behind a picture of him and Nat at graduation, with their brothers in the background. No one needed to know that it was there and that Tony was saving for some odd reason.

Once inside of the building, he pushed aside thoughts of Steve, Ty had told him that he would be working in the stacks, so Tony headed up and found an empty table towards the back. Even sitting there, he thought of Steve and had to try really hard to get the blonde out of his mind, there was no chance of that happening at all, not since he had heard about the girl, or even the fact of Bucky being his ex. He didn’t want to have something weird happening with his roommate.

So, he sat there in the library, working on one of his stories, thinking about Iron Man and Captain America, and wondering about the possibilities of him meeting someone named Steve Rogers who looked like the comic book character. That had been a one in a million shot, he couldn’t get lucky twice and have that guy fall for him too. It didn’t help that his characters were now starting to look more like him and Steve, but it didn’t matter, Steve wasn’t a fan of Captain America anyway so there was no point in thinking too much about it, even though the image of Steve in the Captain America uniform was very appealing.

“Hey there,” he heard Ty say pulling him out of his thoughts about Steve and the good old Captain, Ty was a good guy, so maybe this could go somewhere and help Tony get over his crush.

“Hey,” Tony said with a smile, though it was not as big as the one he had given Steve and he knew this. He saw the library cart that Ty had, though filled with books, Tony doubted that the guy had actually done any work before spotting him at the table.

“So,” Ty sat down in front of him a huge smile on his face his little leather-bound notebook in front of him. “I hope this isn’t too much, but I wrote all of the dialogue, I’m horrible at exposition, it’s why I got a B- on the last story, but I’m great at dialogue, so I hope that you can write something around this and we could edit from that.”

“That sounds great, especially since I didn’t have any real ideas about what to write about,” Tony said, the only story in his head with his own fanfiction story, he hadn’t put much thought into what to write for this project so having to do the other half of the story that was already essentially written... well it was something that he was good at.

“Okay, so here it is,” Ty said pushing the notebook towards Tony, the sides of the paper was creased a little and the soft leather was warm to the touch almost as if he had been working on it until Tony had gotten there, but Ty looked proud of what he had done. “I have to work for a bit but read through what I have, and I’ll stop by whenever I can.”

Tony nodded, giving Ty a smile before going through the pages and pages of dialogue, quickly typing it into his laptop, every once and a while he adjusted the whole thing to better fit what he was writing. It was second nature for him to fix and adjust things, he did it with his stories and he did it with whatever he was inventing, his own phone had been created by him, there’s only one in the world, because he had hated what his mother had given him. The only thing in there was the chip for the phone company, everything else came from his need to fix and adjust, so he used the same on the dialogue that Ty had given him.

Every so often Ty would show up and read what he had done, amazed that he had gotten it so quickly, “This is really good,” Ty would tell him before someone from the library staff came around the corner and told him to get back to work.

“Time to get back to work,” he said sending Tony apologetic looks as he walked off towards his next task.

By the end of the night the story was done, and Tony felt like he had accomplished something that had nothing to do with his father’s plan for him. It felt good, but as they were leaving the library, he had noticed just how dark it was outside, and he was alone because Ty had lived in the opposite direction. Tony wasn’t huge on walking alone in the dark, blame it on being kidnapped when he had been little, sometimes all he remembered was the darkness and nothing else.

“Are you sure you can’t take the long way?” Tony had asked but Ty said no and left him standing there. He wasn’t sure of what to do, shoving his hands in his pockets he felt his phone and remembered Steve’s number now in his contacts.

He didn’t know if it was a good idea, because maybe Steve had gone to that party with Bucky, or maybe Steve didn’t really like him. But he decided to try anyway, and sent Steve a message, asking him if he could still pick him up, he had thought it was stupid to even send it in the first place, but Steve quickly replied sending a message back with a smiley face, and then not even five minutes later he was standing in front of Tony breathless and smiling.

“You didn’t have to run here,” Tony said even though he was secretly happy, because for a moment he felt like the world was closing in on him. Even with the lights on the paths it still felt too dark near where he was standing.

“No worries,” Steve said wiping his head with his sweater. “I didn’t want to leave you standing there.... so... where’s your date?”

“He left,” Tony said feeling a million times more awkward, because it hadn’t been a date, it had just been school work, and for some reason, he had said it was a date to see if Steve would react to it, which just felt really stupid now.

“He didn’t walk you home or anything? Geez that’s a lousy date if you tell me,” Steve said and Tony couldn’t help but smile, at least someone was looking out for him.

“It wasn’t really a date, I mean, I don’t know why I called it that,” Tony felt his cheeks heat up, he just wanted to tell Steve the truth for some reason. Instead of being put out by what he had said Steve just grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the campus store a really big smile on his face.

“Listen, if you think it was a date, then it was,” Steve told him as they walked in. “If the other person hadn’t realized it well tough for them.”

Before Tony could say anything, Steve walked towards where the water was and grabbed a bottle, chugging it as he walked towards the register, Tony paid for the water before Steve could pull out his wallet.

“It’s a thank you,” he said to him before they walked back into the night, he wasn’t sure if a water would be a good repayment, after being angry at him when they first met but it was a start. “Hey can I ask you a question.”

“Go ahead,” Steve said smiling at him, which honestly was a little distracting for Tony, no one should have that kind of power just from smiling.

“Why don’t you like Captain America?” Tony couldn’t help but see how Steve had stiffened at that question, and Tony knew that it seemed as if it were a sore subject, but he really just wanted to know so that he wouldn’t be stepping around the whole topic when it came to Steve. “You don’t have to answer it, I was just curious.”

“I’ll answer it in the future, when we’re better friends,” Steve told him, rubbing the back of his neck as if he were struggling with the answer.

“Okay... yeah... sure,” Tony said wondering if this was going to be the thing that would bring them together, or keep them apart.

“Can I ask you a question?” Steve asked after a minute of quiet had passed between the two of them.

“Go ahead,” it was now question and answer time, which was better than hiding from Steve all together. It’s nice to have a full conversation with Steve and not worry about whether he was offending Steve by saying the wrong thing.

“Who is the character you have with Captain America on your wall?”

Tony couldn’t help but want to laugh, if Steve not wanting to talk about Cap was a sign that he hadn’t liked the character or at least had some kind of reservations about the character as a whole, but him wanting to talk about Iron Man was something else. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’ve never seen anyone like it, I mean a character like it, so I found it a little interesting,” Steve told him and Tony smiled, it was different to have someone ask about Iron Man who didn’t know a single thing about the character himself.

“It’s Iron Man,” Tony told him, though it feels like he’s revealing something about himself. “I created him a long time ago, I write stories about him and Captain America being friends and helping one another.”

“What,” Steve looked at him, Tony could see the surprised look on Steve’s face. “Did the comics inspire you?”

“In a way, there’s a lot more to it, but I won’t tell you about it until you’re ready to tell me about why you don’t like Cap,” he said countering Steve’s own reservations when it came to Captain America.

“Touché,” Steve said with a smile. They had reached the dorm, and while Tony wasn’t ready to call it a night, he knew he had too.

“Night Steve, and thanks for walking me home,” Tony told him as Steve gave him one of those megawatt smiles.

“No problem, I’ll see you around, maybe I could get you to read some of your stories to me,” he said before waving at Tony and walking away. It was nice, at least he thought it was, that him and Steve could actually start being friends.


	4. Chapter 4

“I gotta tell you Nat, he’s way into you,” Jan said as they sat down at one of the tables in the local Starbucks. They had gotten tired of being on campus for lunch, and so Jan drove them into town for some coffee instead. It was nice to get out of the dorm and not hide away like he normally did, even if he had to listen to their girl talk.

“Last night was nice,” Natasha said all nonchalant, even though she was smiling.

Tony was lost, mainly because he hadn’t seen either of them in the last two weeks, mostly because of midterms, he had barely talked to anyone, because while he hated taking tests, he still took them, studying the material at the last moment, even though he knew everything by heart. The only thing he could gage from the conversation was that there was a guy, and if it hadn’t been for Bucky’s dreamy stare the last few days, he wouldn’t have put two and two together.

“So, when are you going to see Bucky again,” Tony blurted out, because what’s the use of knowing about the whole thing without using the information, this only caused both Natasha and Jan to looked at him like he was crazy.

“Who’s Bucky?” Natasha asked him, and he knew at that point that only Bucky’s close friends called him that, to everyone else he was just James.

“James Barnes, the guy you’re dating, he’s my roommate,” Tony said, and Natasha’s wide eyes were all it took for him to know that she hadn’t realized this. She was good at finding out thing before Tony did, so the fact that she had been half flirting with his roommate for weeks and he’s known it before her was a feat that he was willing to be proud of. Jan had this look on her face like she had blocked out that Tony had a roommate at all, and then remembered that conversation that they had had so long ago about Steve.

“Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you’ve been hiding from me because of this?” she asked him.

“Not really, I’ve been hiding because I’ve been working on stuff in the robotics lab, and I’ve barely been sleeping, I only put two and two together like two weeks ago when I had dinner with him and he started talking about this girl he was in love with, all he could talk about was how her hair shined in the sun and she was as pretty as a flower, the guy has it bad for you.”

Jan spit her drink back into her cup at the word love all the while choking back a laugh, Natasha’s face on the other hand turned red matching her hair, “He can’t be in love with me, we’ve been on three dates and that’s it.”

“Well he looks like he’s found a star, so as long as he treats you right it should be fine,” he told her and he really was genuinely happy for her about it as well. They deserved happiness no matter what, “The only thing that bugs me is how he doesn’t know we’re related, and honestly I’m not telling him either,” he liked the relationship him and Bucky had struck up, mainly just going to eat, because Tony hardly ate when alone, and talking about the students at school, their classes, and of course the love of Bucky’s life, his sister. Though he hadn’t mentioned his little crush on Steve, and that was something he was keeping to himself.

“I’m not the only one keeping my identity a secret mister I’m wearing my glasses instead of my contacts and have grown out my hair,” she said as she twirled her finger around one of his loose curls, his hair had gotten a little wild over the last few weeks, he was too busy to actually go to the barber and have it cut, instead focusing on school and his stories.

“Is it bad that I don’t want to be a Stark for once,” he said slumping into his chair. He needed more coffee for this conversation, but he didn’t want to move at all, he felt lazy for the first time in a while, but that’s because he was relaxed and didn’t have a mountain of work to get through.

Deciding on not listening to them, mainly because they wanted to either attack his inability to get a haircut, he tuned out the conversation, not wanting to say anything about his roommate because they kept asking, and concentrated on mapping out the schematics of the artificial intelligence project he was going to use as his final project. He was going to implement a part of it on Butterfinger’s brother and if it worked, he would try and work on a full-scale model for himself. He still didn’t have a name for it but as long as he kept working on it, well it would be alright.

Getting up he walked back to the counter and tried to figure out what kind of coffee he wanted, the first one hadn’t been strong enough but Natasha had ordered it for him, so this time he wanted five shots of espresso added to it if he had to. Plus, it gave him a reprieve from hearing Natasha and Jan talk about their love lives, or at least Natasha talk about Bucky. Although it had been nice to have more information that she had for once. When it was his turn to order he was greeted with the very familiar smile of Steve behind the counter.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Steve said with a smile, which was really a nice surprise and also answered the question of why Steve smelled like coffee all of the time.

“It’s fancy seeing you here too,” he said smiling at Steve, he couldn’t figure out why he felt shy all of a sudden. “I’m having lunch with my sister and my friend, but they don’t know how to order coffee so I need more and as strong as you can make it,” he told Steve sounding almost desperate. Although their relationship with had gotten a little better since they started talking it was never about anything important, or answering the questions that they had asked one another.

“How strong are we talking about?” Steve pulled out a note pad, ready to take Tony’s order, though he noticed that it was the same kind of paper that he had written his number on a few weeks before.

“Strong enough to peel tar off of the sidewalks, the kind of strong that will burn a hole in my body,” Tony said and honestly, he could be a little desperate for coffee, although Steve looked amused at this. “How much would that be?”

Steve shook his head before walking towards the machines and getting to work, “It’s on me,” he said with a smile, which had way too much power over him.

“But...” he tried to argue but Steve turned the frothier on high and acted like he couldn’t hear Tony at all, was this what it felt like when a little kid is in love for the first time, because his heart was beating a little too quickly over just talking to Steve for a few minutes.

Instead of arguing with Steve about paying, he pulled out a twenty-dollar bill to put in the tip adding a little smiley face to the bill and a note to Steve in binary, because why the hell not, it wasn’t like he was going to see it anyway. Slowly writing each and every number so that he wouldn’t miss the right combination, he was nervous and it was really really stupid of him to write it but it didn’t matter.

**_01001001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101_ **

The zeroes and ones were a carefully coded word, and it was weird to write it because he still wasn’t sure about Steve’s feelings but he thought maybe confessing this way would help him avoid the heartache that would come later. When Steve was walking over, Tony threw the bill into the jar and walked towards him so that he hopefully wouldn’t notice what Tony had done. Tony could feel the heat rising on his cheeks but he didn’t want anyone to notice so he tried his best to act like it was nothing.

“Here you go,” Steve said with a smile, though Tony almost glowered at him because the coffee wasn’t really black, and he just wanted black coffee, but he was also fighting with himself because it was something that Steve had made for him. “Try it Tony before you say something.”

Tony took a sip and immediately regretted it, not because of the taste but because the coffee was scalding hot. He cursed himself, but tried the drink a second time, and honestly this time it was nice, yes it was strong, but it tasted like gingerbread cookies, it reminded him of Jarvis and his wife and all those holidays that his parents had been too busy.

“It’s good,” he said with a smile before taking a deeper drink in hopes of hiding his face.

“Good,” Steve said before going back to work, giving Tony a wink before helping the next customer.

Tony made his way back to the table, only to find it empty, with a little note from Nat saying that she’ll talk to him later, with a little angry emoji on it. So, that meant that they were going to figure out what the deal was with Bucky, or she was angry at him about not telling her about Bucky being his roommate. It didn’t matter, instead Tony picked up his stuff and walked out into the cold November chill, the coffee keeping him warm as he walked all the way back to campus, but he really couldn’t complain, with Steve’s coffee concoction in his hand.

He headed to the library for his weekly meeting with Ty, who had started writing a new story and giving it to Tony to edit for him, this had become their new routine, because it was nice to have someone to talk about fictional characters with. Tony kept fixing a lot of the story that Ty had started writing, as well adding to it so that it had felt like their first collaboration. Tony had been thinking about their next assignment and he couldn’t figure out what to write, he had thought about submitting one of his fanfiction stories, but changing as much of the character’s names as possible. The thing was that Tony had been so busy writing his fic and helping Ty while also working on the coding that he hadn’t given much thought to actually writing anything original, though if he thought about it, Iron Man was original, even though for Tony he existed within his Captain America stories.

“Can you take a look at this,” Ty said as soon as Tony sat down at his regular table. “I feel like it doesn’t look right for some reason.”

“Yeah sure,” Tony pulled the story towards him, still in the notebook which meant that to fix it he would have to type it into his computer, which meant more work for Tony. “What do you think is wrong with it?”

“I don’t know, it’s not flowing like the one we did before, I’m trying to get better at writing the other stuff, but it’s not working,” Ty slumped over on him acting dejected but it was only his way of getting Tony to help him.

“Let me work on it and come back in an hour, hopefully I can fix it and add to it as well,” he told him pushing Ty off of him and towards his cart before turning to the notebook, as he turned on his computer.

The hour passed in a flurry of activity from Tony, he typed faster than normal, adjusting Ty’s half of the story and fixing it to work better, adding things here and there so that the flow worked better than it had before. Ty stopped by a few times, explaining how he wanted to write a story where the villain and the protagonist fall in love, he called it the anti-love story, because it wouldn’t end well for either of them. Stories like this were easy for Tony, because of past experience with one of his former relationships, though he wasn’t going to share that with anyone.

“You know,” Ty said as he sat down during his break, “This story could be something else, I never had my stories work so well until we started working together, it’s nice.”

“Yeah,” Tony said smiling as he put the finishing touches on the draft before sending it to Ty’s email so that he could read it. “It’s interesting to see how it develops, but for now all you have to do is read it and make sure that everything you had before is still in there.”

“Yup, will do,” Ty said before heading off to the printers. Tony noticed this, Ty wasn’t the type to read off of a computer he preferred paper copies, Tony on the other hand didn’t care otherwise, everyone had their own quirks. “This is really good,” he said as he sat back down going through each paper reading them and making little notes.

Their first story had been a hit with the professor, this one wasn’t going to be a class thing, but Tony had felt like it was something to be proud of as well. He worked on it just as much as Ty had and he hoped that maybe when it was finished, they could keep this weird writing relationship that they had going on.

“I need coffee,” Tony said as the night wound down, the library was going to close soon, but it had been a very productive night for the both of them. “You want to go grab some coffee?” he asked Ty as they started packing up their stuff, trying to see if he could convince him to walk with him back to the dorms.

“No not really, I have to get home and finish up with my paper, and I want to add things to this,” Ty said still looking at the papers he had printed out. “There’s a lot of work I still want to do on the story.”

“Oh, okay,” Tony said before they walked out of the library and into the darkened night, Tony watched as Ty walked away without saying another word. Leaving Tony alone in the dark once again, he didn’t know what to do mainly because he didn’t want to rely on Steve to pick him up every time he came to the library.

Just as he was about to walk to his dorm, nervous as hell, because who wouldn’t be when it was as dark out as it was when he left the library, he saw the blonde boy of his dreams walking up to him with a smile on his face and a cup of coffee in his hands.

“Hey,” Steve said as he stopped in front of Tony. “I just finished my shift at Starbucks and remembered that you’d be here so I thought you’d like to try this,” Steve gave him the full cup of coffee and Tony felt like he’d been blindsided for a moment before taking the cup from him.

“What is it?” he asked as he put it to his lips, and drank the still hot beverage. The flavor exploding in his mouth, it tasted like caramel ice cream, which threw him since it was hot and not cold.

“It’s just something I invented, though it’s not as strong as the one I gave you earlier,” Steve told him with a shrug. “I want to make sure you go to sleep after this.”

If there was anything that Steve knew for certain, it was that Tony liked coffee which was good since Steve worked at Starbucks and could make all kinds of drinks. He had seen the bill that Tony had dropped in the tip jar and had to make sure that he had been the one to get it, though he wasn’t sure what it said, and he didn’t want to check either, it was all ones and zeros and nothing else. But it was something that Tony had written and put there for Steve to see, so he wanted to make sure that he was the one who got it and not one of his coworkers.

“So, what’s the catch?” Tony asked him as they started the walk towards the dorms. Bucky had gone to see the girl he was falling for just as Steve got to the room. He had taken it as an indicator from the heavens that he needed to see Tony, it’s the only reason he had made the coffee in the first place so why couldn’t he just casually walk over and see him as he left the library.

“Well, I want to know about Iron Man, but also... um... well I have an exam coming up and Bucky and I usually study together but he’s been a little preoccupied... with... well that girl he’s seeing, so I was thinking about something and then...,” why couldn’t he say anything, it was too much to just ask for help, or was it that it was Tony that he was talking to. He took a deep breath and just asked. “I hoped that you could help me.”

“Ahh, there’s always something isn’t there, and you’re bribing me with coffee,” Tony smirked at him as he took another sip of the coffee, honestly, he only made it taste like caramel because sometimes when the sun shined on Tony his eyes looked like caramel, and Steve couldn’t help the smile on his face as he watched Tony drinking it. “If you bring me some coffee tomorrow, I’ll tutor you.”

“You don’t even know what I need help with, for all you know it could be the most mundane topic in the world.”

“Is it?”

“No, it’s a math thing, and I know for a fact that you’d be good at it since I’ve seen the weird equations you write on your wall in your room.”

“Coffee, tomorrow night eight I guess, I’ll order some food for us,” Tony said with a smile just as they reached the dorm.

Steve just waved as Tony walked into the building, grinning like an idiot, he didn’t work the next day because he had classes, but he knew that he needed the coffee. He couldn’t help the happy thoughts floating through his head as he drove home. He had taken a chance at getting Tony’s attention, he hoped that just a few hours of studying, he could get to know him better and maybe they could move closer to something more. The feeling had been there, since the beginning, as rough as it had been, but he wanted this chance to get to know Tony better.

“You’ve got that doofy grin on your face,” Sam said as Steve walked into the house. “You only get like that when you like someone, or when you get a really good grade, and since we already got our midterm grades.”

“Yeah well you get that look on your face too,” Steve said trying to move past his friend. “Come on Sam I had a long day and I need to get some sleep tonight I have class in the morning,” he knew that he was whining, and he didn’t care at all mainly because as happy as he was that Tony had agreed, he was still tired from being on his feet all day.

“Just tell me who it is?” Sam asked pushing for answers, and he knew that Sam would ask questions, it’s been a while since Steve even thought about dating, everyone thought that him and Sharon had a thing, they didn’t but since Steve hadn’t jumped on it and stopped the rumors, the whole debate over whether or not they were dating had become fueled to everyone because Steve hadn’t confirmed the relationship or denied it either. He wished that he had denied the whole thing from the beginning so that things like this wouldn’t keep happening to him.

“No, it’s none of your business,” he said trying to keep his cool over it, he didn’t want to get angry at Sam.

“I’ll just ask Barnes, he’ll know,” at that Steve stopped, he hadn’t told Bucky about his little crush on Tony, hell he hadn’t told anyone, Buck thought that they were just becoming friends which was what he wanted him to think before be broached the subject of him asking Tony out. Though he was happy to be Tony’s friend, but he knew in his heart that he wanted something more than a friendship.

“He’s on a date, so I doubt he’ll answer the phone at all,” he said quickly knowing that when Bucky was with his someone, he wouldn’t answer the phone, the guys thought it was because Bucky was trying to get laid, but mostly it was because Steve’s parents had a no phones at the table rule, and at the moment he was glad that Bucky had learned to follow it while they grew up.

“Damn, with the red-head,” Sam said and when Steve nodded, he cursed to himself. “You know she’s a Stark right, the only girl in the family and all that, I found out the other day, does Barnes know about that?”

“What do you mean she’s a Stark?” Steve asked genuinely surprised to be hearing about this, though he knew Tony had siblings, hell who didn’t know Tony had siblings, he hadn’t thought that his sister would also be at the school at the same time as him.

“Well there was a rumor that one of the Stark kids was at the school this year, and I saw her walking around and automatically knew it was her,” Sam told him and Steve had just realized that he had missed this. He remembered Tony had been sitting with two girls earlier but he usually only saw him whenever he was around so he may have missed a lot.

“I thought,” he was about to say something about Tony, but remembered what Bucky had told him about Tony wanting to not be noticed at the school. He also vaguely remembered Tony saying something about his sister that very first day they had met, but he had only thought that she was there helping him move in and nothing else.

“You thought what,” Sam said to him but Steve just shook his head, he wasn’t going to expose Tony to the world, especially since he was sure that Tony really just wanted his privacy as a student.

“Never mind, it’s nothing, I thought it was just a rumor nothing more,” he said before turning towards the stairs and taking them up two at a time. Hearing Sam yell at him as he rushed off, not wanting to get trapped in the conversation any longer. He wondered if Bucky knew that his girl was a Stark, but he had too, unless he had been too enamored over her to actually ask the question about who she was.

It didn’t matter, it was Bucky’s life and Steve was going to let his friend live it, if in the end he realizes that he’s dating his roommates’ sister and Tony doesn’t kill him, then Bucky would have survived the worse. Or at least he hoped that was the worst that could happen, though he remembered that Tony had a few older brothers so who knew what Bucky would have to face in the future. There was also the fact that if Bucky could date Tony’s sister, then it was possible for Steve to be able to date Tony, which just made his night even better.

* * *

Tony had been in a good mood all day, even when he walked back into his dorm after having to deal with his classes, and acting like he didn’t know half the shit his professors were talking about. He turned in his story, after adjusting enough of it so that it wasn’t about superheroes or resembled fanfiction, he didn’t care as long as his professor liked it. Now he was waiting for Steve to show up so that he could help him out. He hadn’t even noticed when Bucky had come in and out, which meant that he was too out of it for his own good, but it didn’t matter at all, the semester was almost at its end, and the Thanksgiving break was coming fast. He was happy for once, really happy and not just sort of happy, well if that was a thing.

The moment that Steve walked into the room Tony almost jumped out of his skin, mainly because he hadn’t been paying too much attention until he felt a warm cup on his face. Tony already knows that it’s the same one that Steve had made him before, he can taste it before it’s even in his mouth and he’s too excited about it.

“Thanks,” he tells Steve with a huge smiled before taking a big gulp from the large coffee cup. Before either could say anything, else Bucky kicked the door open again before turning to look at the two of them before shrugging his shoulders and taking off his shirt, throwing it in the ever-growing pile in the corner.

“I hope you brought one for me you punk,” Bucky says to Steve eyeing the coffee in Steve’s hand. Causing Tony to turn back towards his computer trying to hide the size of the cup in his hand, and he knows he’s doing a bad job of it too, because it’s a little hard to hide something that smells as good as that coffee.

“I didn’t, but if you want it that badly you can have mine,” Steve offered but Bucky made a weird face the moment Tony turned around.

“You take your coffee too sweet and its gross, I hate drinking it when it’s yours,” Bucky said before pulling on a new shirt. “I have a date tonight, so I shouldn’t drink that shit anyway.”

“Yeah with Tony’s sister,” Steve said and Tony choked on his coffee, because while he knew that Natasha was dating Bucky, he was never sure if Bucky knew that she was his sister, which only confirmed his theory when Bucky looked at him all wide eyed. “You didn’t know?”

“Seriously,” Tony said looking at his roommate. “How blindsided have you been, the two of you have been going on dates for the last month, I know because you always come here with that doofy grin on your face.”

“We’re getting to know each other,” Bucky said sounding embarrassed about the whole thing.

“Shouldn’t she tell you her last name while you’re getting to know each other,” Steve asked and Tony was curious why she hadn’t told him, it was one thing for Natasha to not say something, but another one if she lied about who she was.

“She said her last name was Romanoff,” Bucky said and Tony wasn’t sure what to think, she was too good at hiding who she was when she didn’t want people to associate her with her own family, hell hadn’t that been what he had been doing all semester.

“Yeah,” Tony said feeling defeated for a moment, Natasha wasn’t the only one with another life, Tony being the only actual biological Stark, he couldn’t hide from that life, he didn’t have another last name to hide behind.

“What do you mean by yeah, because honestly I’m freaking out over here,” Bucky said to him, his eyes wide and Tony was sure that he had just scared the guy.

“Nat is adopted, all of my siblings are, plus she likes to hide from the press sometimes, and when she doesn’t want you to know who she is she damn good at it too,” he told him. “I guess she just wanted a moment where her every move she made wasn’t being scrutinized.”

“So, should I be freaking out?” Bucky asked him but Tony shook his head. “Am I going to get the shovel talk from you?”

“Not yet, she’s really good at taking care of herself, and technically she’s older than me, but our brothers might say something if you get to that point in your relationship.”

“Right you have brothers, I’ve seen them, and one of them is a fucking bulldozer,” Bucky said giving Steve a scared look before sitting down on his bed.

“Yeah, Thor played football in college, almost went pro too, he started up a company team and everything, so if you hurt her, he would actually tackle you to the ground,” Tony said with a smile, because it was one thing to do it for fun and another when Thor tackled someone when they pissed him off. Clint had broken his arm once because of it, but that was one of the hazards of being in their house.

“You’ll be fine,” Steve told him patting Bucky on the back. “Just treat her right, and don’t do anything stupid and you’ll survive.”

“The thing is, and I know it’s weird, but I honestly think that she’s it for me,” Bucky said as he leaned back on his bed while messing with the metal band on his wrist, the five-pointed red star in the middle reminded Tony of the Winter Soldier in the comic books. “I know we’re young, but I feel a connection to her that I’ve never felt before.”

“Ouch,” Steve said Tony saw a bit of hurt in his eyes, there’s always going to be the possibility that their past relationship was going to be a factor, but Tony wasn’t going to think about that, he wasn’t in any kind of relationship with Steve, they were just friends.

“Yeah whatever you punk, you know that whatever we had was never going to last, we were always better as friends than anything else anyway, even your mom thought so, she always called us stupid for getting involved anyway,” Bucky said and Tony wasn’t sure if he was intruding in on this conversation, especially since it also involved Natasha. He didn’t want to know anything about their relationship before she did, mainly because she would kill him if he didn’t tell her anything in time, he was certain that this time he wouldn’t escape death. “Whatever, I’m going to go pick her up,” he said before turning towards Steve. “Can I borrow your car for the night or do you need it?”

“No not really, Tony was just going to help me out with some stuff for that math class, so you can take it,” Steve said and Tony didn’t want to think too much about them being alone together, not after the conversation they had just had. They were just friends nothing more.

“Cool,” Bucky said taking the keys from Steve before heading out, leaving them alone, Tony in his head telling himself that they could never be more, that there was too much history between Steve and Bucky for Tony to be anything with Steve.

They were quiet for a few minutes after Bucky left the room, it was weird for Tony because even though they’ve spent a lot of time walking from the library back to the dorm, or the times they’ve run into one another, or even that first really weird week. They had never really been alone in his room, it was a little weird for him. He wondered if Steve had seen the note on that twenty-dollar bill, or if Steve knew why he liked the things he did, or anything.

“So,” Steve said breaking Tony out of his thoughts. “I thought you could help me with this, it’s for the exam we have before Thanksgiving break, and I need to pass the test badly, since I didn’t do so well on the midterm.”

Tony looked down at the sheet and smiled, he could do this, math was easy for him, it wasn’t relationships or roommate drama, math was math, “Sure, no problem,” he said wondering if Steve could hear how hard his heart was hammering away inside of his chest.

They were sitting so close to each other, Tony could smell Steve, and it smelled like heaven and apple pie for some strange reason. He pushed aside his thoughts and moved onto the work at hand, trying to distract himself and not attempt to take a bite out of Steve. As tempting as it was, he was still off limits, no matter how much Tony wanted to be near the guy. He wasn’t going to attempt anything if Steve was still secretly harboring feelings for Bucky.

Steve could hear Tony sigh as they went over the same three problems for the third time, it was Steve’s fault honestly, he was distracted by Tony. It was stupid, hell he thought about what Tony had told Bucky about his older brother, and the thought that if he tried anything and messed it up then the same brother would kill him as well. But the smell of Tony was distracting him in so many ways, he smelled oddly like coffee, coconut bodywash and metal if it were possible. He knew that Tony was constantly in the robotics lab working on something, hell he’s seen the little robot on Tony’s desk, he wondered if the thing knew when Steve was staring because he could swear that he sometimes saw the thing move, like it was assessing him.

“Did you understand that?” Tony asked him and Steve said yes, he had the notes Tony had written up for him so he could just study them later.

“I hope so,” Steve answered with a smile. “I’ll have to see when I take the test.”

“You can’t say I hope so, I want you to actually remember the damn thing,” Tony said before going off and explaining the equations all over again. Though this time Steve actually paid attention, trying not to get too distracted by Tony, his hair, the little scars on his hands or how he smelled.

The next time Tony asked he actually reiterated what he had heard, remembering it better than when the professor had taught it in class, and extremely glad to be done with it. It was tiring for some reason, the whole thing in general, especially with Tony so close to him but he actually remembered. Tony got up to stretch once they were done, and Steve couldn’t help but watch the little strip of skin that showed as Tony’s Black Sabbath shirt rode up. He wondered what it would be like to touch it, to feel his hand against Tony’s body. He quickly looked down at his notebook, pretending to study the work and not the slowly growing erecting that he was currently growing in his pants. He needed to think about something else, anything else, but he was so close to Tony that he could kiss him, and he wanted to so badly.

“Tell me about Iron Man,” he said instead, not wanting to ruin their ever growing friendship.

“I created him, I guess as a way to put myself in the same world as Captain America,” Tony said sitting at his desk, looking up at the image of the metal man.

“Why do you like Captain America so much?” he asked leaning back, letting himself see this side of Tony, the side of him that liked superhero comics and wrote about the characters like they were his own. “I mean, there has to be a reason why.”

“Why do you hate him so much?” Tony asked him back, and Steve knew that he was going to have to give a little before Tony told him anything at all. “I mean Bucky said it was because you had been bullied over having the same name, but I can tell that there’s something else there.”

“Fine, but after I tell you this, you have to tell me your half of the story,” he said wondering if this would ruin what they had and not caring because he wanted to be honest with Tony. “My dad is Joseph Rogers, he had created Captain America for me, just like he had made Spider-man for my little brother, even creating characters for my other siblings, but for some reason Captain America had been his first real big break as an artist.”

Tony was looking at him, his eyes wide and his mouth open, and Steve wasn’t sure why, but he kept telling the story of how the character came to be. “I had been weak as a baby, even in my mother’s womb, so he had created this character who had grown up sick, but got better because of some weird science, because you have to know that it’s weird there’s no way something like that was possible in real life, but anyway, he had wanted to give me hope growing up,” Steve sighed remembering everything, how painful it had been to breathe growing up until for some reason in High School, he started getting better. “I was a bit of a runt, and Bucky was one of my only friends, even in a house full of brothers.”

“Yeah Bucky told me that you were smack in the middle and that you had five brothers at home and even sisters on the way,” Tony told him and Steve couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah, I grew up in a big family, I was the smallest of them all, hell Peter would have outgrown me if it hadn’t been for that growth spurt, I had in High School.”

“They say that the body changes once every seven years, so maybe your body just did what it had to for you to get to where you are.”

“Again, science had something to do with it,” Steve told Tony with a smile on his face, it was one of the only things that really connected him with Captain America. “I did have some experimental stuff done growing up, and some of it had helped, I got stronger and I could play baseball and I go out on dates and all.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you and Bucky really break up, I mean it looks like you still like him and all.”

The guy was really asking the harder questions, the ones that he’s been asking himself for a long time now, though he was glad that he wasn’t with Bucky anymore, at least if it meant that he could have a chance with Tony in the end. “Well, he said it was because we needed to grow up, and that we weren’t that good together anyway. He actually broke my heart, and I didn’t talk to him for a while, but I think it was a good thing that it had happened, because in that time I realized that he was right. We hadn’t been that good of a couple. We’re more like brothers than anything else and when I realized that, well the whole memory of the relationship felt weird.”

Steve sighed looking down at his hands, the conversation was good, they were getting to know one another, so it meant that maybe one day they could get somewhere. But then he remembered that Tony spent a lot of time in the library with that other guy, and there was the possibility that they were in a relationship. But for now, he was just going to take as much of Tony as he could, and maybe if Tony and that other guy didn’t work out and they broke up, then he could try to ask Tony out on a date.

“So, now that I’ve told you my part, you have to tell me yours,” he said trying to change his thought pattern just enough, at least to steer away from the fact that he might never get his chance with Tony if the other guy was someone Tony really liked.

“I started reading the comics because I had been bullied in school for being too small, I was in advanced classes when I was young, but my mother didn’t want me to skip too much and miss having a normal school life either. So, Natasha and I had a lot of similar activities growing up, things we could do together, we were the youngest in the family so of course we’d be together all of the time.”

“Who’s older,” Steve asked curious because he was getting to know Tony just a little bit better.

“She’s older, I was born a few months after she has been adopted,” Steve saw something flash in Tony’s eyes as he said it. “Anyway,” Tony said turning the conversation back to the topic at hand. “When we were in middle school, I had started writing little stories here and there, I always had extra classes or something afterschool, my dad didn’t like us having too much free time, but the Captain America comics had its first movie I around that time, and my brother Clint had taken us to the movies, and after that I wondered if Cap needed more heroes to work with.”

“Is this where Iron Man came from,” Steve was amazed that something his father had made had changed so much in someone else's life. “You wanted Cap to have a sidekick or something.”

“Not a sidekick, more like a partner, or even a team, Iron Man was mine, but Nat created her own and we wrote stories about this team of superheroes, and we called them the Avengers,” Tony was smiling but he probably didn’t know that he had Steve hooked on this, Steve had always hated the character, and everything that had come with it, but seeing it from Tony’s point of view changed something in him, because what if Captain America wasn’t just one hero, well outside of his brothers own characters that his father had created. What if there was a team there with him? Helping him, instead of the regular comics his dad had been writing for them for years.

“Can I read one of the stories one day?” he asked, amazed that he could want anything to do with something he had hated for so long.

“Sure, I mean they’re online so you could find them easily, but if you want, we can read one together, but only if you pass that test, it’ll be a reward for passing.”

“Okay,” Steve couldn’t help but smile, he wanted to know more, maybe even finding something to like about the character.


	5. Chapter 5

**_The Man in the Iron Mask and the Sleeping Captain_ **

_By **IamIronMan**_

_There were a hundred reasons as to why he wouldn’t tell the world who he was, one was the safety of those he knew, the other was that he didn’t want the world to judge Iron Man in the same way it judged him. So, on days when he had to be himself he wore one suit of armor, though it was made of cloth, to show the whole world one side of himself, and on days where he was Iron Man he wore a suit made out of a nickel-titanium alloy, because it had to be strong enough to survive a firefight, but also easy enough for him to fix._

_Today was one of the Iron Man days as he watched SHIELD slowly defrost the Captain from the inside of a surgical suite within the Helicarrier. Nick Fury standing in front of the glass, his long black coat weirdly moving as if the wind was blowing, all the while watching as if the world hadn’t thought this was a possibility for the great Captain to have been found after so long. The Captain was alive, even though he had been frozen in the artic for over half a century, he had survived his deep dive and was somehow frozen as his twenty-six-year-old self. Even though now he was well into his nineties, it wasn’t up to Iron Man to tell him that he was no longer in the world he had once known._

_“What do you plan to tell him,” Iron Man asked the Director of SHIELD, he had handed off responsibility over the Captain to SHIELD, mainly because his public persona couldn’t hide the fact that he had a super soldier in his basement, especially since he wouldn’t hold the man hostage once he had woken up._

_“We need to bring him into this slowly, we can’t have him knowing too much at once, we don’t know how he would handle it,” Fury told him, but he already knew that the plan was flawed, there was no way that the Captain wasn’t going to know, too much had changed in the time the Captain had been frozen._

_Iron Man knew that he had to give the Captain a chance at knowing the truth before SHIELD tried to hornswoggle the man, he wondered if that was how people would have said it in Captain America’s time. Whatever, he didn’t care about that, but he knew just how to give the Captain a chance._

_“I have some old audio of baseball games from the 40’s at my disposal, leftovers from a relative, if you want to use them you can,” Iron Man said though under the helmet he couldn’t help but grin to himself._

_“That would be very helpful,” Nick Fury said before Iron Man took off. He didn’t want to give the man a reason to figure out his plan._

* * *

Tony didn’t hear back from Steve before Thanksgiving break started, mainly because both of them had been mostly busy, Steve had his test though he had also texted Tony that he had a few shifts to work at Starbucks before he left for the weekend. He thanked him several times in those messages as well, and Tony had been over the moon just from a few messages. Tony on the other hand had to start on the welding for his bot, as well as the wiring for the artificial intelligence that would make it a learning robot.

Though he was excited to go home, he really wanted just one more moment with Steve before the break but that wasn’t going to happen especially since Steve had to leave right after his shift on Tuesday night. Jarvis had been the one to drive up to the school to pick them up on Tuesday afternoon, it would just be the kids this year, his parents had to go overseas for the week his dad had urgent business to take care of.

“I’m sorry to the both of you, but your brothers have also been called away on business,” Jarvis told them as they drove down the interstate towards the city.

Natasha just sat back against the seat with a smile on her face, “That’s fine, I was actually going to go with Jan to Italy and meet up with her mom and do some shopping. Mom said she’d meet us there and that we’d have a girl's trip,” she said, and Tony could see the excitement on his sister’s face, though he wanted to complain about being alone, he knew that in the Stark family holidays together were rare.

“Make sure you bring me back something,” he said trying not to sound defeated about being alone, he could just go and see Rhodey and Pepper, but he wasn’t sure if that would be alright either, mainly because he wasn’t sure where they were during the holiday.

“I will, I know what you like,” she told him with a smile, and he could tell that she needed this time with their mother, especially since Natasha and Bucky were getting together more often, Tony knew that Natasha needed their mother’s advice more than ever, even if it meant that he was going to be alone for the break. “Jarvis, can we drop my stuff off at home before I head to the airport?”

“That would be alright Young Miss,” he said giving Tony a small smile and a wink. Tony knew that smile, it was his pity smile, because it meant that Tony would be completely alone, and Tony wouldn’t want to take away the small amount of quiet time that Jarvis would have with his wife, not the way his family normally worked the couple.

Tony stayed quiet instead, focusing his attention to his tablet, he had made his own after the one that had been put out by S.I. wasn’t fast enough, it also had a working holographic display, but he never used it around anyone, not even his own family. He was always afraid of his father taking any of his inventions for himself, so Tony had kept the shell of the tablet before taking apart everything inside and putting in his own hardware.

His robot project, Butterfinger’s brother was coming along the only problem was that the AI program wasn’t working properly just yet, he was having an interfacing problem and wasn’t one hundred percent sure of how to solve it. Mainly because the time he would have spent working on it, he had been helping Steve or hanging out in the library with Ty. Though he couldn’t fault them for that, mainly because it was nice not having to actually live up to being a Stark and just being a regular person. Maybe he could use the long weekend to work on it since he was going to be alone for the first time.

Once Nat was out the door and on her way to meeting Jan, Tony told Jarvis to go home, acting like he didn’t really care if he was alone, so when Jarvis had given him a small smile and a promise to stop by with leftovers Thursday night, he had just pushed him out the door and told him to enjoy his time off. So, for the first time in his life, Tony was completely alone in a house that was normally filled with his family. His mother would have insisted that he had joined her and Natasha, but he didn’t want to intrude on that, his brothers would have told him to join any one of them wherever they were, but he didn’t want to be a part of the Stark family machine. It was actually nice to not have to live up to his name, but it was still very lonely.

Grabbing Rhodey’s hoodie from his backpack, it had been the only thing that he had taken with him other than his laptop and his notebook which now had the sleeve from the first cup of coffee that Steve had brought him, Tony went to the media room and sat down to write his story. As it got closer to the last issue of the series, Tony started to ramp up his writing, planning on revealing Iron Man’s identity to Captain America. He had been thinking about it for a while, especially since Steve had told him about his father being the creator of the series. The big reveal would be that Tony himself was Iron Man, because it would mean that he would be that much closer to Steve in a way, at least in a way he wasn’t sure would be possible in real life.

In his story Cap was in love with Iron Man, and while Cap hadn’t known the true identity of his friend it hadn’t stopped him from falling in love. Natasha had called it cheesy in a way, but it was his story to tell, even when she helped him with his writing, even when she called it too much like one of those romcoms that they always watched together, she still smiled at the sad pining looks that the two would give one another. He knew that she was a secret romantic at heart, he saw the hopeful looks she had given him whenever she talked about Bucky, she felt the same way that Bucky did, they were in love, even with only two months of dating even with her secrecy about who she was. Tony had taken their story and slowly weaved it into his own, even before learning the truth about Steve, the Winter Soldier had fallen for the Black Widow, and no one knew about it, because that was as far as Tony would write it. Natasha would have to write her own story, he wasn’t going to go anywhere near it.

He hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep until someone plopped down next to him on the couch making him bounce on his side before his face was fully plastered against the pillow. He knew it was Rhodey before he could fully wake up, his best friend home for the holiday just like he was, and of course he comes to annoy Tony the first chance he got.

“Get up, Pepper is bringing Chinese food, and we know you haven’t eaten yet,” Rhodey said though he didn’t even try to move at all, smothering Tony into the couch cushions. “She’s bringing May too, so we can watch some movies or something.”

“Okay,” Tony said his voice muffled into the pillow, all of a sudden he was feeling a little less alone. He rolled over until Rhodey fell on the floor and he was hanging off the side of the couch holding onto the side with everything he had. “When did you get back?”

“About an hour ago, I got a message from Nat saying that you were at home all alone tonight, and probably for the whole weekend, and that I should come save your stupid ass.”

“I don’t need saving,” Tony grumbled before adjusting himself on the couch just as Rhodey stood up picked up Tony’s legs and sat down next to him putting his legs on Rhodey’s lap.

“Yeah you do, I mean you were just going to spend the whole weekend watching Captain America movies and writing fanfiction, I know you Tones, you never really change.”

“Whatever, you and your logic over here can leave Cap alone,” Tony said because in a way he was also defending Steve, and while Steve didn’t really need defending from someone who didn’t know him, it was still something he needed to do.

“You’re coming over for dinner tomorrow too, I told my mom when I got home, about how lonely and sad you were going to be, and she said that there’s always room for you at the table,” Rhodey told him before grabbing him and pulling him into a hug. “Though she was weirded out about the fact that your family left you all alone this weekend.”

“Yeah well color me surprised too, I didn’t know until I was in the car with Jarvis on the way down here,” he said knowing that he should be angry at his family, but they were never together around this time of year, there was always one meeting or another.

“That’s why I’m here to save you from yourself,” Rhodey said with a smile. “I also got you a present.”

“What kind of present,” Tony asked knowing full well that it would be something dumb, but they’ve been best friends for years, and they usually got random things for one another, mostly from where ever they were in the world.

“A special M.I.T. sweater just for you,” Rhodey said before pulling off his own sweater, “And it still smells like me, so that means when you get back to your school it’ll help repel all of the stupid people.”

“Ahh yes, Alpha male stupidity,” Tony said with a smile. “Thanks.”

“I still don’t understand why you gave up M.I.T. to go to some small school, but as long as you’re happy, I’ll let it slide. Even though we could have been roommates and all,” Rhodey was guilt tripping him, Tony knew this, though it was a joke it still felt like coming home.

When May and Pepper showed up twenty minutes later with several bags of food, from their favorite Chinese food place, Tony felt happy. Yes, he was alone, his family all but abandoned him for the weekend, but he had his friends, these were the people who were always there for him no matter what. He learned that Pepper and May had gotten an apartment together, they were both using their work study money for it, though he knew that they weren’t struggling, not when the both of them usually spent the summer working at S.I. for Thor or Loki, which ever one wanted an assistant. Rhodey told him about what it was like at M.I.T. and about the girl from his Air Force unit that he was trying to get with. He spent the summer at basic training, and luckily got time off to go to school.

Tony told them about his writing class, his future bot son, Ty writing with him, and about Steve, he knew he had gushed about Steve the most, he also told them that he liked his roommate, even though he was dating Natasha. They all knew that Natasha would kill Bucky if he tried anything, so they weren’t too worried about her. Though they worried about Tony constantly, mainly because of his sleeping habits, his coffee obsession and his perfectionist attitude.

“I think we should go somewhere together for Spring Break,” Rhodey said to the group as they sat around the coffee table trading food cartons and fighting over the dumplings.

“Where could we all go that won’t kill our budget,” May asked as she took Tony’s Orange Chicken from him and threw it on her plate before he could get it back.

“I could just get the keys for the chalet in Aspen, my family hasn’t gone in a while and I’m sure my mom would be okay with us going,” Tony said smiling, “We could even ask to use the jet.”

“No,” Pepper said though Tony knew that he could convince her at some point. “I think we should do something local.”

“Like a camping trip,” Rhodey said and Tony groaned before hitting his head against the table. “We could go as a group, Tony could invite his college friends, Nat would go, and maybe I could convince Carol to go as well.”

“I hate camping,” Tony said but they all just ignored him. He fought like this whenever they tried to bring it up, and usually they rented a cabin so it wouldn’t really be camping, but he knew that one day they would really end up going camping and he was dreading it.

“A night under the stars would be nice,” May said looking at Pepper with hearts in her eyes, and Tony wouldn’t deny them that opportunity, mainly because he loved them too much.

“Fine, but I’m buying my own supplies,” he complained but they all knew that he wanted to go, even if it’s for their sakes, he loved his friends had he mentioned that.

The rest of the week went about the same way, he was either with Rhodey at the Rhodes house, or spoiling Pepper and May, by taking them out to dinner. He wanted them to have a good break, but also it kept him from being too lonely. Jarvis and Ana came to the house on Saturday and they baked all kinds of treats for Tony to take back with him. He hadn’t seen anyone else even when they had driven him back to school the next morning, Natasha had called and said that Jan and her were coming back late, something about the flight being delayed because of weather, so in the end he was actually alone on the way up. The car smelled like cookies and home, but if he were being honest, he really just wanted to see Steve again.

* * *

Steve’s break on the other hand, was spent corralling his brothers, helping his mother, or making sure that nothing went to hell, he was glad to be back on Sunday morning for his shift at Starbucks. For some reason that was more soothing then being at home for the holidays. He loved his family but the house sometimes felt too full when everyone came home, especially since his mother was now on bed rest and his father wasn’t a very good cook, so it was left to Steve to help out with everything while at the same time trying not to ruin dinner. Which according to his mother was the only meal that she got to share with her kids, which was a lie since they had Christmas a month later, but she liked to guilt trip them, especially Hank and Bruce who were both off working at some huge company, in different fields. They’re usually too into their work to actually remember to come home every once and a while for something, anything at all. They were sometimes too into whatever it was that they were researching to actually remember that there were holidays happening at any point in the year.

Honestly though, he was mostly excited about seeing Tony again, after their talk before the break Steve started drawing Iron Man and Captain America, he had a notebook filled with drawings. He had even taken his father’s design for Captain America and updated it to better fit in with Iron Man. Even though he hadn’t read any of Tony’s stories he tried his best with the drawings, he wanted to show them to him because for the first time since he was little, he was excited about those comics.

“I still can’t believe you made me get up so early just to come back here,” Bucky said slumped over at one of the tables. “I could have slept in you know.”

“I wasn’t going to drive back just to pick you up Buck, I’m not your god damned chauffer and you know it,” Steve told Bucky, but he knew it would have fallen on deaf ears because Bucky had started snoring not long afterwards. Kicking the chair and forcing his friend to wake up, he couldn’t help but wonder why this was the way his morning was going. “Just go back to the dorms.”

“Yeah I would but I don’t want to move,” Bucky lamented like some Shakespeare character, dramatically draping himself on the table.

“No even to see your girlfriend?”

Bucky rolled over and groaned into the table, Steve was lucky that the place was still empty, but that was only because most of the students didn’t get back until late afternoon. “Her flight got delayed so she won’t be back until later.”

“I though she went home with Tony,” he said, but somehow, he knew that it wasn’t the case. “I would have thought that they would have been at home most of the week.”

“Nah, she had a last minute thing with her friend Jan and her mom, from what she had told me, Tony had been left alone all weekend,” Bucky said looking at him, but Bucky didn’t really see him in fact Steve was sure that Buck wouldn’t have, because mention his girl and everything went out the window. But the thought of Tony being alone made Steve feel bad for him, he couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for Tony, even with having siblings, Steve would have guessed that one of them would have been there. He was going to ask another question, but Bucky had fallen asleep again, and Steve wasn’t in the mood to wake him.

Hours later, Steve was in Bucky’s room, Bucky had gone to shower after taking a three-hour nap on the couch at Starbucks, leaving Steve there on Tony’s bed. He could have sat on Bucky’s bed, but Steve was almost certain that Bucky never actually washed the sheets since the day he moved into the dorms. When they were kids, Steve remembered that Bucky’s mom would yell at him over the way his room smelled and that he should go wash his sheets or burn them. Steve really hoped that dating Natasha would change that, but he wasn’t going to ask whether it had actually worked, at least not at the moment.

Seeing Tony walk into the room smiling, with another man right on his heels had stopped Steve’s heart, he wasn’t sure about how to take the tall man’s appearance. Then Tony turned the full wattage of his smile towards Steve, before all but launching himself at him, which confused him for a moment before he gave up his own train of thought and put his arms around Tony.

“Someone’s happy to be back,” Steve said with a smile all the while ruffling Tony’s hair. “Did you really miss school.”

“No, just you,” Tony said which only made Steve blush, it wasn’t what he was expecting to hear at all.

“Are you going to introduce me?” the other man said his eyes going from Tony to Steve, before Tony pulled himself away from Steve just to stand up next to the other man, which Steve instantly regretted letting go of Tony.9

“Sure, thing Honey buns,” Tony said, and Steve couldn’t help the flare of jealousy that came over him at the moment, just from hearing a nickname. He shouldn’t be jealous, but then again, this man had something that Steve couldn’t ever really have, he hated himself for feeling that way. “Steve, this is my bestest friend, or at least one of them, James Rhodes, but I call him Rhodey.”

“He also calls me platypus and a million other nicknames, and he steals my sweaters, my socks and a million other things that I probably don’t know about,” Rhodes says to Steve as he shakes his hand, gripping it a little tighter than someone would normally do when shaking someone’s hand. “I’m just here to see the guy that Tony wouldn’t shut up about.”

“Oh,” Steve said, and he wasn’t sure if he was blushing or getting sick, but it didn’t matter because Tony talked about him. “I didn’t realize that I was a topic of conversation.”

“Just sometimes, we did talk about other things,” Tony said pulling Rhodey away from him, which Steve found odd in a way, mainly because the other man was about to say something else and was stopped by the shorter man.

Before anyone could say anything else, Bucky kicked the door in, and the conversation turned into Tony introducing his best friend to Steve’s best friend. Leaving Steve alone with his thoughts, mainly about Tony saying anything about him. He was sure that they were becoming friends, but he wasn’t trying to push those boundaries and try anything further. He was pulled out of his thoughts when someone else walked into the room, and all of a sudden, the place felt too packed in. Steve saw Bucky light up as his girlfriend walked towards him, and Tony went and pushed Bucky out of the way just so that he could hug his sister.

"You know,” Rhodes said to Steve. “I was afraid that he was making a mistake coming here, he literally gave up going to one of the best schools in the country just to be here. But I can see that it’s making a world of difference for him.”

“What do you mean,” Steve asked genuinely curious to learn anything about Tony but hearing this from someone else’s perspective wasn’t something he expected.

“Well he has a lot riding on his shoulders, yes he has brothers who also work at the company, but even they all knew that Tony was going to be the head of the company one day, there’s no way around that, he’s a genius, he’s sees the world differently than everyone.”

“He sees the future,” Steve said remembering the things he saw at Tony’s desk on a day when the genius was out. Mathematical equations that no one Steve knew could understand, even when tutoring Steve, Tony would talk about math in a way that made him light up like it was the one thing in the world that made sense.

“Yeah, he does, but because of it he was always a little shy when it came to talking to other people, he’s not really good with human interactions, hell he’s in the middle of coding some kind of artificial intelligence, and he keeps saying that when done it would be based it on his butler,” Rhodes sighed before smiling at Steve. “This place has given him what M.I.T. or his own father wouldn’t have, a chance a being just another kid.”

Steve hadn’t thought of it that way, he’s only known Tony for a few months, and had spent a while just trying to get to know him pass that disaster that was their first meeting and maybe even the second. “It’s good that you can see that,” Steve said looking at the way Tony smiled at everyone talking about the break, it warmed his heart to watch.

“I’m afraid of what would happen if someone took advantage of his generosity, it’s happened before and he retreated so far into himself afterwards, I honestly don’t want that happening again.”

“It’s good that he has a friend like you to help him then,” Steve said knowing that it was the truth, but he couldn’t help but feel that Rhodes was judging him. That this was a test of some kind, in the same way that his own family protected him after his break-up, or how Sam and Bucky had been there for him after he had been injured at the end of his last season playing ball. Rhodes was assessing his worthiness to be Tony’s friend, and Steve hoped that he passed that test, because he honestly wouldn’t know what to do if he failed.


	6. Chapter 6

It took two weeks before everything in Tony’s life went to hell, he should have known that nothing good would last forever. The thing was that... the first thing that happened… well it happened during his fiction writing class, as his professor pulled him over and explained to him that his story sounded too much like the Captain America comics.

“I’m a fan of them too Tony, but somehow this reads more like fanfiction than anything else,” Professor Coulson said throwing Tony off his axis, “And while I know in some ways it’s an accepted form of writing, I wanted you to use this class to help you build your own worlds.”

That was a hit that Tony wasn’t ready to take, though his professor had told him that he could make up the work by giving him a more than stellar story for his final, Tony wasn’t too sure about it. He hadn’t started writing his final story, he’d tried several times, but for some reason he couldn’t get the words on paper and it was irritating him. This was something he hadn’t seen coming at all, even though he should have known to never get too attached to things. He didn’t have that luxury, he was a Stark, why should he have nice things or even dream of a life outside of what his father had planned for him.

Deep in his own thoughts he had almost missed what Steve had said only catching the tail end of the words. Steve had repeated it after Tony had explained that he was a little confused about what was happening. Mainly because he couldn’t get out of his head long enough to listen to anyone, especially when the failure was one that would haunt him.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Steve had asked him for help with studying for his final exam. Tony saw it as another way for them to hang out together, but also as another way to focus his energy on something else, anything else.

It made him happy, it was just what he needed, a distraction from his own thoughts about his failure in fiction writing. The words failure were ringing through his head, but with Steve there, he knew it would be alright, “I’ll help you,” he said to Steve not holding back his smile. “I’ll even give you a prize if you get all of the answers right on a practice test, because of course I’m giving you a practice exam.”

“Okay,” Steve said, and Tony couldn’t help but feel hopeful about just having Steve for even just a little while.

They studied together that night for a few hours, it was Thursday night and Bucky at the moment was out with Natasha, so they had the room to themselves. Tony was stretching on his bed while Steve sat at Tony’s desk and answered the questions on the practice test. The prize was Tony reading one of his stories to Steve, because while his own life was going to hell, it helped him write his fanfics more. Leaning over and grabbing one of the iced Frappuccino from the mini-fridge, Tony sat up to see a smiling Steve with his paper held out.

“I swear they’re all right,” Steve said placing the paper on the near the side of Tony’s bed where he was standing, all the while Tony just stared at him, he wasn’t sure if a smile from Steve had some kind of healing properties, but it was working wonders on Tony’s mood.

“I’ll be the judge of that Rogers,” Tony said, taking out a red pen that he had gotten for the next time that Steve had asked him for help. It was a gel pen with gold glitter, and he had found it at one of the shops in the city, thinking about using it on his own story to fix the errors but then thought of Steve, especially after finding a blue one with red and white glitter. Of course, he brought both of them, along with those little gold star stickers he used to get in kindergarten, though he wasn’t sure why, all he knew was that it was silly, and it reminded him of Steve.

“So,” Steve said after five minutes had passed, Tony could see the unholy glee in Steve’s eyes, because he knew that they were right, and Tony would have to tell him.

Sighing Tony looked at him trying to be a serious teacher, before smiling, “Other than your atrocious handwriting, yes they were all right.”

“Liar take it back, my handwriting is fine,” Steve said defending himself, and of course it was fine, Tony knew this, but for some reason teasing Steve was the most fun he’s had in the last day.

“Yeah I know it is, but I needed to be an evil professor for a minute,” Tony said with a smile. “But you did good Steve, you’ll pass the class with no problem.”

“Thank you, Tony, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without you,” Steve said with a smile on his face that was tugging on Tony’s heart. “I have a thank you gift for you.”

“No Steve, I don’t need a gift,” honestly speaking though Tony just wanted more time to spend with Steve, but with this would mean that Steve didn’t need his help anymore and he wanted to stretch it out for as long as he could.

“Yeah well, you promised that you would read one of your stories, but that was more motivation for me than anything, so I figured that I needed to give you something as well,” Steve was rubbing the back of his head, which only made Tony nervous. “It’s not perfect, but I figured you could put it with the rest of your collection or something.”

He wasn’t sure what Steve meant, until he was handed a drawing of Captain America with his cowl pulled back, looking a lot like Steve, and Iron Man with his helmet off, looking like Tony. The latter had his arm around the other, they were both smiling as if someone was taking their picture, while they stood on what looked like a New York City yellow cab, destruction all around them, but it looked like they had won whatever battle they had been fighting. Tony wanted to cry, normally he had pictures like this commissioned by others, or he brought prints from people who had made them, because they didn’t know that Tony Stark boy genius was the one behind the stories. In all of those pictures Iron Man’s face was always covered, but this one, this one was different, because it was not just Cap and Iron Man, but Steve and Tony.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he to the picture and put it on his wall next to all of the others ones, careful not to ruin it. “No one has ever given me one like that.”

“Really, but you have all of these,” Steve pointed at all of the pictures, “Are these from people who admire your work?”

“Yes, but no one has ever given me one where I’m Iron Man, because no one knows that I’m the author, the only people who know are my mom and Natasha, and well you,” he felt his face burn at the words but it felt nice to have someone who knows that it’s him, who took the time and effort for him.

“I’m glad you like it so much,” Steve said to him and Tony just wanted to reach out even for just a moment and kiss him, but instead walked over to his desk and grabbed his tablet.

“I have a story I want to read to you,” Tony said smiling. “It’s still a work in progress so no one’s read it, and so I hope you like it.”

Steve nodded at him and sat down on Tony’s bed, his back against the wall, Tony sat down right next to him, his body touching Steve’s, his heart beating wildly, if he could stay that way forever he would, but instead he pulled up his latest story, one that had been inspired by him meeting Steve. Tony had been thinking about writing one where Iron Man reveals his identity to Captain America, even writing himself into the role.

* * *

_The wind was pushing against them as they walked through the icy Artic town, there was_ _no way for Iron Man to fly in these conditions and not lose his team. Cap was pushing against the wind but every once and a while Iron Man could see the good Captain turn around and check to see that everyone was following his lead. Iron Man watched him constantly, he could see the wild look in the Captain’s eyes, there was something there, something that haunted him. He knew that Cap hated the colder temperatures, they reminded him too much of his time in the ice, of losing his friends again, of losing time._

_“Everything alright,” Iron Man called out on the comlink that they had, he just wanted to check on Cap, make sure he was alright. If his cold metal shell wouldn’t harm the Captain, he would have touched him, but the severe cold would have done damage, he was sure of it._

_“Just a little cold, but the upgraded suit you gave me has kept most of it out,” Cap answered before pushing forward._

_There was a Hydra base somewhere nearby, one that had been experimenting on homeless people, those that Hydra was sure wouldn’t be missed. The consequences had been disastrous in some areas, because those same people had become weapons for Hydra, even if they hadn’t suspected it themselves. Hydra had teamed up with Advanced Idea Mechanics on this venture, using a serum that cause the unsuspecting subject to explode at the will of their handlers, in some cases to devastating entire areas, including their targets. Who would suspect a homeless person of being a bomb, no one would, not even their targets. It was up to the team to stop them, and Iron Man hoped that they wouldn’t run into any trouble on their way. Hydra had chosen well, no one was in the Artic outside of drilling companies and scientists studying the life forms living there._

_“We’re nearing their entry point,” Iron Man said but it didn’t look like it judging from the lack of entry of any kind. Cap looked over at him, almost as if asking the question that_ _was running through his own mind._

_“Where is it?” Hawkeye asked, bundled up in more layers than any of them. “All I see is_ _the ice and nothing else.”_

_“Thank you, Hawkeye, that’s very observant of you,” Iron Man said, and they all heard the sarcasm coming from his voice modulators, there was no way that they couldn’t have heard it at all._

_“No bickering boys,” Black Widow said as they neared the point. “I don’t want to have_ _to save your sorry asses in this fucking tundra.”_

* * *

“Who are all of these other characters?” Steve asked him, interrupting the story. “I’ve never heard of them and I’m pretty sure that my dad wasn’t this inventive with code names.”

“Oh well,” Tony didn’t know if he should tell him the whole truth, but since Steve had shared with him the truth about the origins of Captain America it was only fair that Tony should share his background to the characters as well. “Okay, remember how you said that your dad had made characters for each of your brothers.”

“Yeah everyone but Harley has a character, Harley actually told my dad that he didn’t want to be a part of it because he would rather be remembered for other things than to be the kid of the guy who created Captain America and Spider-man.”

“Well, when I started writing these stories, I wanted to add more characters of my own, so I added my own brothers, it’s easier with Thor and Loki, they were named after Norse gods, so I just used that as their back story.”

“That would work very well,” Steve said to him, it was weird for Tony to be this close to Steve without them working on something for Steve’s class, or without Bucky being there to annoy them.

“Well I based the other two on my brother Clint, and of course the Black Widow is Natasha, she picked that name and created the back story of a Soviet KGB trained ballerina spy, because she had wanted a character that would be like her but also have a back story to tie in the Winter Soldier,” he explained, Natasha had been the one to originally write the character, she had liked the tragedy of the Winter Soldier storyline and had wanted him to have someone outside of his ties to Captain America. It was also one of the last things that she had written for him and he kept using it in the years afterwards.

“You know your dad never really explained much about what had happened to that character, the change and all of that,” he added, because honestly, he was curious about it too, the change had happened so dramatically, but it ended up working in the comic book.

“Yeah I know,” Steve said to him an amused look on his face. “The story changed around that time because he wanted to bring it into a more modern setting, because he wanted to find a way to tie it in with the Spider-man series, hence the time jump.”

“I bet there’s more to this story,” Tony said wanting to know more about Steve’s life, not just the Captain America side of his story.

“Yeah well, like you, my dad started to put more of my own life into the comics, Bucky is the Winter Soldier, my friend Sam is the Falcon, things like that, but the Winter Soldier story came from the year that Bucky and I broke up, I had been really heart broken, so my dad who already had issues with my relationship with Buck, turned the story into that.”

“Your dad’s not homophobic, is he?” he asked afraid of what would happen if Tony actually got to the point where he could actually ask Steve out on a date.

“No, it’s nothing like that, he just always saw the differences in the two of us, things that had been clouded for me because I only saw everything one way where as my dad saw everything at every angle, he had told me that one day Bucky was going to break my heart, and we fought over it and all, but he said that I had to make my own choices and let it go. The break-up happened, and I finally saw what my dad did,” Steve sighed as he told the story, Tony wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear any of it mainly because he was sure that Steve was still in love with Bucky. “And what my dad had seen was the fact that even though we had grown up together we both changed, we liked different things, like Buck likes to go out, you hear about him taking your sister out all of the time, but I prefer to be at home and watch movies. Buck is more of a free spirit in a way, he needs someone who moves like he does.”

“It’s not so much that he’s a free spirit,” Tony said to him, understanding where Steve was coming from. “It’s more that he’s guarded against other things, it could be that because you guys lived in a place that was so small, where everything you do is looked at closely, that you hide certain parts of yourself, and at some point, those parts have to come out.”

“How do you know that?” Steve asked and Tony knew that he was curious about it too.

“It’s because I’m more myself here with you and Bucky and Natasha, then I am when I have to be in public, I had to create this persona for the public to see, one that wasn’t me, because I when you live under a microscope you want to keep the parts of yourself that you only share with those you’re closest to.”

“I never thought of it that way, I was always just being myself, I never thought to think about what Bucky would be feeling,” Steve had this look on his face almost like everything was revealing itself to him, and Tony wondered if he had opened the box that would bring Steve back towards his former love. “I guess we were different after all, he’s more open here than he had been at home, whereas I’m still the same person I’ve always been, but he’s still my best friend.”

“Kind of like Captain America and the Winter Soldier, where no matter how much time has passed or how one has changed over the years, they would still be friends.”

“Yes, but now, I guess seeing him through your eyes, I think I’m ready for something different, so read the rest,” Steve said and Tony knew that something in their relationship had shifted, because if Steve was trying to see everything from a different angle then that would mean that maybe, or at least Tony hoped, there would be something for them in the future.

“Okay,” he said his voice a little quieter, he knew that he was on the spot now, he knew that he was holding onto hope somewhere in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he continued on with the story.

* * *

_Iron Man began scanning the area, from where they stood all that you could tell was that_ _it was a large ice sheet, nothing in front of them but the blowing snow drift and the icy_ _tundra. He could see Thor flying overhead his hammer keeping most of the snow at bay, there was only so much that could be kept from them, and he knew it was worse off if Thor wasn’t keeping it away from them._

_“Do you see anything,” Captain America asked him, knowing his friend more than Iron Man could understand, the only thing that the Captain was unaware of was Iron Man’s identity, and it was something that he kept quiet from everyone. There was no need for the world to know who he was, not if it would compromise everyone that he knew._

_“About fifty feet in front of us is a hatch that goes down, from there we have to walk another twenty feet towards an elevator shaft, from the looks of it the shaft goes down about one hundred meters into an open space.”_

_“Are you picking up any hostiles?” Cap asked him and they both knew what would be waiting for them at the bottom._

_“I can’t tell how many Cap,” he told him, his equipment could only handle so much, but_ _with Hydra and A.I.M.’s interference there was no telling what they were walking into._

_“Okay, this is how we do this, I want Iron Man and Thor in the front, Black Widow you and Hawkeye cover them as best you can before you break off and get to their servers, I’ll take the back and make sure that no one surprises us from behind. Falcon and the_ _Winter Soldier are our back-up on this they’re nearby if we need them, but far enough away that they won’t be spotted,” Cap turned towards Iron Man for a moment, “Do you all understand your mission parameters?”_

_“Yes,” they all answered._

_Iron Man blew open the hatch walking in, the sound of his boots clanking against the metal stairs, his replusors at the ready in case there was someone there that he had missed. He could hear the footsteps of his teammates nearby, his onboard computers keeping an eye on their vitals, he wanted to keep them safe. Even though Cap was the team leader, Iron Man was considered the co-leader, or as Hawkeye constantly referred to him as, the Team Mom._

_They couldn’t take the elevator down, it would raise too many suspicions if they did, so it_ _was up to him and Thor to get everyone down to the main level by flying them all down. Thor had the Black Widow at his side, while the Hawk rigged his arrow as a grappling hook so that he could get down on his own. Leaving Captain America for Iron Man to fly down with, he had put special grips on his armor just for this, they came in and out on command so that they weren’t a hindrance during battle._

_“Hold on Cap,” he said as Captain America held onto the armor, they looked at one another very quickly before they descended into Hydra base, the elevator looked as though it was already on the ground floor._

_The area was quiet once they reached their destination, not a soul in sight, which felt off_ _in so many ways, because Iron Man had been sure that there had been movement at some point. His sensors had picked up something, but there was no one around. Scanning the area, he noticed footprints moving in several directions, he would have thought that it was dust or some kind of dirt they were tracking in, but it wasn’t possible when everything above ground was ice. Then he noticed it, in the corner by a set of blast doors, the signs that something had exploded, the imprints of people’s bodies on the walls._

_“Something happened here,” he said as he went further into the area before something_ _shook beneath him. “JARVIS, scan the complex,” he called out to his A.I. as the area shook again._

_“It seems as though the blast that originated in this room is a recent event, there is movement on the lower levels in compliance with an evacuation order,” was the answer_ _that Iron Man received just as something below them shook, another explosion rocking the underground complex._

_“Cap,” Iron Man called out, “This place is unstable, the experiments are failing from the looks of it.”_

_“Do we know how long ago this happened, or did they do this because they knew we were coming,” Captain America asked as he walked towards him._

_“From the looks of the scorch marks on the wall and the fact that there’s footsteps on the ground, I’m taking a guess at saying that this was recent, they may have not known that we were on our way, or they might have, but we won’t know for certain if the entire thing collapses on top of us.”_

_“Thor,” Cap called out. “Grab Widow and Hawkeye and get up top as fast as you can, call for back-up in case Hydra decides to make an appearance up there. Iron Man, you and I will go further down and see if we can gather what we can before this place falls apart.”_

_“Will do Cap,” Iron Man said before taking a step forward towards the blast doors, hoping that he would be able to open them._

_Just as the rest of the team called in to tell them that Hydra was fleeing, the floor beneath them collapsed taking both Iron Man and Captain America with it._

* * *

“Is that it,” Steve said from where he sat. “We don’t know what happens to them.”

“Hold your horses Steve, I need something to drink,” Tony told him before rolling forward and grabbing a bottle of water from the mini fridge. “I’ve never talked this much in my life.”

“Sorry, I guess I should have just read it myself,” Steve answered but Tony shook his head, because if he were honest with himself at this moment, he liked the fact that Steve was so close to him, and that he actually liked the story.

“Nah, it’s fine, I like this, I’ve never had someone so interested in what I write, or at least someone I know.”

“Honestly speaking, and I know my father is going to hate that I’m saying this because he’s worked so hard on the character, but I think I like your story a lot better.”

“Why, your dad worked hard on Captain America.”

“Yeah but, I guess it has more to do with the fact that even with his allies around him, Captain America always felt... I don’t know if lonely is the right word. It was like something was missing.”

“What like Iron Man should have been there the whole time or something?”

“Maybe, or just maybe the whole team, you called them the Avengers before, and I think that maybe that’s what was missing in his life, a team.”

“Maybe he really just needed a family.”

Steve was smiling at him, almost like Tony had given him something that he had never had before, a family for Captain America. It was something that Tony hadn’t known that he had wanted to see, maybe it was because Steve had lived all of his life with the knowledge that his father had created something for him and then put all the pressure on his own son to live up to that. He could just be projecting his own issues with his father, but that’s something he didn’t want to go too far into.

“Should I keep going?” Tony asked feeling almost out of breath for a moment, because Steve was so close to him, and Tony hadn’t realized just how pink Steve’s lips were, or how blue his eyes had been. Were they always that color or was it just because they had never gotten this close to one another?

“Yes, I would love to hear the rest of the story,” Steve said, and Tony could feel Steve breathe in front of him. They were so close, all Tony would have to do is lean in and take the one thing that he had been craving for weeks, but he chickened out at the last minute and pulled back. His face was flushed, and he knew it, but he also knew that he couldn’t ruin what they had as friends.

* * *

_The moment he woke up he knew that something was wrong, first off, he didn’t know where he landed that was making the suit’s circuits act up and secondly, he wasn’t sure where Cap was. There was an easy way to solve one of those problems, except he was pinned down by something and he wasn’t sure what it was and whether it effected the integrity of the structure. His leg hurt, he could feel something inside of the suit hell he could feel it through his own skin. For the first time since they arrived, he felt the cold air as it creeped into the suit like an annoying bug. He knew that the under suit that he wore underneath wouldn’t be enough to keep him from freezing, because as much as he worked on the gear for the rest of the team, he constantly ignored his own needs. He relied on the suit to protect him more than anything else, forgetting the very real person_ _who lived inside of it._

_“Iron Man,” he heard Cap scream out, so there was one thing off of his mind. “Iron Man where are you.”_

_“Over here,” he yelled out, the voice modulator broken, which meant that his voice was_ _muffled by the helmet. Luckily Captain America had some super powered hearing_ _because not long after he had called out, the Captain’s face appeared from beyond a fallen pillar._

_“It’s good to see that you’re alright,” the Captain said as he made his way over only to stop and see Iron Man lying on the ground. Iron Man knew that he was trapped, and he knew that they would have to find a way to get him out of his current predicament._

_“Maybe alright is a relative term,” Iron Man answered, even more aware of another growing problem, his chest hurt, which meant that the chest piece that he hides from his teammates was also damaged. He just wasn’t sure how much damage it had taken, and if they didn’t get him out of there in the next twenty minutes it could become a permanent problem, especially if he’s dead._

* * *

“I was going to ask about that,” Steve interrupted him once again, and Tony knew that the questions about Iron Man’s origins was something that he had never discussed in any of his stories, only the after effects of everything that had happened. “Why do some of the pictures of Iron Man have a glowing light at the center.”

“It’s a miniaturized arc reactor,” Tony said even though he knew that it didn’t explain everything, hell he never told his father about his plans to make the reactor at the power plant more cost efficient, his father would say that it was impossible. “Okay, so I never wrote about Iron Man’s origins, although I’ve wanted to, I just didn’t think that people were interested. This is the first time I’m writing it into the story because I wanted to create a deeper relationship between the two of them.”

“So, what does an arc reactor do?” because of course Steve would want to know, not that its heavily publicized at Stark Industries, his dad always said that it was just something that still needed work.

“Well the one we have at the factory powers the whole building, it’s basically clean energy, the only downside is that if it’s overloaded it can explode like a nuclear bomb and wipe out a good portion of the city, but for Iron Man or at least his backstory, the reactor is in his chest, not just the armor. It works like an electromagnet, and it’s used to keep pieces of shrapnel out of his heart.”

“Geez how did he get that,” Steve said and Tony knew that he had him hooked on this, even though he’s never told anyone, the creation of Iron Man comes from one of those times that Tony had been kidnapped, Tony used his own life as a part of his character, the kidnapping from when he was six especially, because he remembered having nightmares for years over it.

“Okay, so Iron Man’s other personality is a mixture of my life and my family’s business, or at least what it used to be, when we still sold weapons, and from there I created a kidnapping where his kidnappers wanted him to build this weapon with this insane destructive capability,” Tony knew that he was rambling, but he rarely got to tell anyone this side of the story, even his readers had expressed more interest in the relationship between Captain America and Iron Man, or when would Iron Man reveal his identity. So, because of this, Tony had kept Iron Man’s origin story to himself, but hearing Steve’s interest in it, he just wanted to spill on everything. “I mean it could wipe out a whole mountain range, anyway the day of the kidnapping a bomb exploded next to him and the bomb embedded pieces of shrapnel into his chest, even the bulletproof vest he was wearing wasn’t enough to stop them.”

“How does that tie up with your life Tony, how could you create something like that,” Steve looked a little horrified at the prospect that Tony had some kind of past that would inspire him enough to create something like this.

“I was kidnapped a few times when I was a kid,” he said or at least he knew that the words had come, but he had never talked with anyone about it, the only person who knew all of the details was his therapist Ho Yinsen. He could see the surprise in Steve’s eyes, there was no looking back from revealing this much of himself to someone. “But the last time it happened, it was a horrible day overall, I was being driven to school by one of the drivers we had at the time, Nat was at home sick, she had the flu, so I was alone with just the driver. We were stopped at a light, and for some reason there hadn’t been any cars around us, I know now that that should have been a huge red flag, but then a bomb went off and the driver head had been blown up all over the seat,” he could feel his heart starting to race, he was going to have a panic attack if he didn’t stop talking about this, but for some reason he wanted someone to know, he wanted a person who wasn’t paid to know, to well understand why he was the way he was.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Steve said, pulling Tony away from the dark thoughts in his head. “If it’s too much you don’t have to tell me.”

“Sorry,” he said suddenly exhausted, it had been a long time since anything like that has happened, he usually kept those thoughts out of his mind, he couldn’t handle them, and he knew this. “I wrote this into the story because the whole thing had been pretty much swept under the rug when I was a kid, they didn’t want people to know that you could kidnap a Stark to make money, but for some reason it only ever really happened to me.”

“Tony,” Steve pulled him close as he said his name, wrapping his arms around Tony in a half hug that made his heart beat in a different way than the feeling he was having from the almost panic attack, it was good to have a distraction. “Maybe that event shaped your life, maybe it made you more wary of people, but it made you want to be who you are now, think of the things that you want to do in your life, of the things you have done.”

“The A.I. in the story is real,” Tony told him with a smile. “Right now, it’s in its first stages, but I want to create a full interface A.I. one day, though I don’t think that the world would be ready for something like that when I’m finished, no matter how advanced technology is.”

“You like talking about the things you create,” Steve told him, and Tony could feel him smile against his hair, as his breathing changed. “I noticed it when you first started talking about your story, the first time I asked you to tutor me, it’s actually nice to see someone so passionate about something.”

They didn’t say much after that, Tony never finished reading the rest of the story to Steve, instead they stayed there, Tony wrapped in Steve’s arms. It was strange for Tony to have wanted something for so long, something that hadn’t been handed to him because he was a Stark, and all of a sudden there he was in Steve’s arms. He took in the warmth, leaning into it, not realizing that he had fallen asleep.

Steve woke up feeling content, and really warm, he could feel Tony in his arms, the lights on the room had been dim enough that they had both fallen asleep without feeling the need to turn them off. Though to his surprise the lights were off anyway, and he wasn’t sure if it was because Tony had gotten up in the middle of the night to turn them off, or if Bucky had come back to the dorm and saw them sleeping like this. He was certain that it hadn’t been Bucky, because his friend had the tendency of snoring or at least snorting in his sleep. He was a deep sleeper and sometimes if he was in the wrong position, he would start snoring loudly.

When he looked down, even with the little moon light coming in from the window, he could see Tony’s face on his chest as the genius snuggled into Steve. He couldn’t help but smile at the way Tony’s face looked so relaxed, and he could swear he could hear him mumbling though what he was saying was lost in Steve’s shirt. He didn’t know what had woken him up, but it was worth it just to see Tony so comfortable in his arms. He stared at him a little longer, before trying to snuggle into Tony’s hair, taking in the scent of Tony’s coconut shampoo, wanting more but he was honestly afraid of what would happen if he even tried to kiss the Tony.

“I can feel you thinking,” Tony said, even muffled by Steve’s shirt he could hear it loud and clear, which only made him stiffen up afraid that this moment would end.

“Do you want to know what I’m thinking about?” Steve asked genuinely curious about what Tony himself was thinking. He really did love listening to him talk, whether it was about mathematics or about his stories, or even about himself no matter how much it pained to hear him talk about his past.

“Not really, I’m more amazed that you haven’t run screaming from me at this point,” Tony said, and Steve’s heart hurt to hear him say anything like that about himself.

“I wouldn’t, not in a million years,” he wanted to be honest, just like Tony had been for him, he wanted to give him everything and more, but he was afraid of losing himself again. Though he knew for certain that Tony would probably just push for him to be happy.

“Can we not talk about whatever this is,” Tony said as he pulled away. “I don’t know if I can take rejection from you right now.”

At those words Steve felt his heart burst, it meant that Tony looked at him in the same way that he looked at Tony. He had been afraid, mostly because he thought that Tony was dating whoever it was that he met up with at the library, but if Tony was looking at their conversation as if a rejection from Steve would hurt the most, then that meant that Tony felt the same about him as he did about Tony.

Before he could chicken out, he put his hands on Tony’s face feeling a small bubble of happiness form in his heart, only the moon and the stars lighting up those beautiful brown eyes that have haunted him from the moment they met, the same ones that always looked at him with glee whenever he got a question right on one of Tony’s study sheets. He could feel the slight roughness on Tony’s face, that little bit of stubble that had grown because Tony hadn’t shaved. He felt Tony’s breath hitch, but there was no turning back for Steve, he couldn’t keep pining for Tony and second guessing himself, not when he was so close to what he wanted the most. He could see a future in Tony’s eyes, it was crazy and stupid, considering how different they were, but there was something more that he would get from it.

Slowly he brought his head down to meet Tony’s, feeling the warmth of Tony’s breath against his mouth, knowing just how close he was to the softness of his lips, he didn’t want to turn away from it. He closed his eyes and slowly kissed him, savoring the smoothness of his mouth as Steve swiped his tongue over those perfect pink lips. When Tony opened up for him everything in his world changed, and he knew that there was no going back from this. He was sad when Tony pulled away from him and looked up at him as if questioning whether or not this was really happening.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time,” Steve told him, not wanting to have Tony question his reasoning. “I’ve wanted to do that since the first day I met you, even though I didn’t know why until this moment.”

“I thought you were still pining over Bucky, or dating someone else,” Tony blurted out and Steve knew that this was going to be something that they would have to work through. He had a history with Bucky, and most likely the whole rumor about him and Sharon had gotten to Tony as well and he hated for not squashing it when he had the chance.

“No, I’ve told you that I’m over Bucky, and if you thought that every time, we talked about him I was pining, well it just means that I wasn’t obvious about my feelings or we could just be bad at realizing what we have right in front of us. I’m not dating anyone else either,” Steve told him wanting to have this moment. We can take everything slowly it’s up to you. “Honestly I thought you were dating that guy from the library.”

“No, Steve, just no, I mean at first I said it that way because I was afraid of… well you not liking me, but it never went that way with Ty.”

“I guess we have somethings to talk about, don’t we?”

“How about for now, we just go back to sleep, because I’m not sure that this is really happening, and maybe we can talk more in the morning,” Tony said to him before snuggling right back into Steve’s chest. He wasn’t sure what had just happened but he knew that it was a start and what ever happened from that moment forward would change both of them.

He listened to Tony’s breathing even out before falling asleep himself, his thoughts never straying from the genius in his arms. His dreams filled with Tony’s world, the one where the Avengers fought together, maybe one where Bucky and Tony’s sister Natasha were also a couple. Iron Man and Captain America fighting side by side, saving the world.

If he needed something to make sure that what had happened that night had been real, it had happened a few hours later, as the sun was rising over the horizon, and Bucky slammed the door wide open and startled the two of them out of their sleep with the loud thud of his bag.

“What the fuck,” Bucky said and Steve forgetting that he was on the edge of the bed, fell off the side and onto the floor.

His phone ringing soon afterwards, reminding him that he had a morning shift at his job, “Fuck,” Steve said before grabbing his stuff. “I have to go or I’m going to be late,” he called out to Tony. “I’ll call you later so we can talk, or you can stop by the house tomorrow, we’re having an end of semester party.”

He was leaving it up to Tony, not wanting to rush into anything too quickly and ruining what he was sure had happened in the middle of the night. He rushed off without telling Tony where he was going, and he regretted it the moment he got into his car and drove off, sending Tony a message was not an option while driving and he was already running late, so it would have to wait until at least lunch time, but now he wishes that he hadn’t run off like he had. It had been a stupid move on his part, and hopefully Bucky would cover his mistake. He didn’t want to lose something he barely had.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Iron Man Meet Captain America_ **

_By **IamIronMan**_

_There was no other way to go about hacking into a government agency without knowing how get out without being noticed. He was good but he was also responsible for creating their system, and while he was sure that they had modified it afterwards, he had to get more and more creative so that they wouldn’t notice him. Why was he hacking into SHIELD, well actually why wouldn’t he hack into SHIELD, they had secrets, he was sure that their secrets had secrets, but that wasn’t why he was going into their servers, the reason was because he wanted to know about the Captain’s condition. Also, whether their plan had worked._

_The feed was coming in from the room, the cameras had to be well hidden or else they would have been found out already. Iron Man listened to the game playing in the background, he had given them the one from May 1941, knowing that there was a strong possibility that Cap would remember the game. The notes on the Captain were that even before the serum he had an eidetic memory, so the possibilities were high especially for the boy from Brooklyn._

_He watched as the Captain opened his eyes, Iron Man couldn’t help but watch the blue eyes flutter open, as awareness entered the Captain’s eyes, there was no doubt about it the Captain already knew that something was amiss, and it was because of the game, because Iron Man could see the Captain turning towards the sound and listening to the game._

_A SHIELD agent walks into the room as the Captain is assessing his surroundings, wishing him a good day, but the Captain’s words ring through loud and clear. “Where am I?”_

_This was the moment he knew that his plan had worked, because why should SHIELD lie to the man about what had happened. He had lived through one of the worse wars in human history, he shouldn’t be lied to because the people up top believed that he wasn’t ready to deal with what was happening around him._

_He watched as the man with a plan broke through a wall, because fuck all if his strength wasn’t something else, this was Iron Man’s cue to get out there and step in. There was no way he was going to let Fury and SHIELD do whatever they damn well pleased with Captain America, not with how they handled the whole incident in Harlem with the Hulk._

_Taking off from his home he flew over Manhattan until he saw Grand Central, taking a sharp right Turn until he was in Times Square, he had his A.I. monitoring the area so he knew that the Captain was nearby, but he also knew that SHIELD was also nearby. That’s when he saw him, standing at the center of Times Square his body turning around taking in the sight around him._

_Iron Man landed nearby, and he could see the Captain flinch before turning his attention to the man in the suit. There was no hiding the wonder in the man’s eyes, but Iron Man knew that he must feel a little out of place._

_“Who are you?” Captain America asked him, and if he were his five-year-old self he would have been jumping up and down at being acknowledged by the man he had grown up hearing stories about._

_“I am Iron Man, and you Captain have found yourself over sixty years in the future,” he said just as SHIELD cars surrounded them._

_“We have it from here Iron Man,” Fury said to him, but he knew better, they never had anything under control._

* * *

There was a moment between Steve falling off the bed, and him running off where Tony had to stop and think if everything that had happened had been real at all. Except his roommate was still standing there looking at him dumbstruck, so what else could have happened if not this. Tony didn’t want to say anything in that moment, he still wasn’t sure where Steve would have run off too so early in the morning, his guess was work, but it was still a little surreal for it to happen.

Before Bucky could say anything, he walked out of the room, his bag on the ground, Tony was certain he had spent the night with Natasha, but he wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole, not at all. What his sister did in her own time was her business, especially since they’ve been spending less and less time together. He was taking too many classes, and she had her own schedule and a boyfriend to boot.

Instead of moving, Tony plopped himself back down on his pillow, secretly relishing the fact that it smelled like Steve, and stared at the ceiling. The popcorn tiled ceiling was only as distracting as his pillow, in his mind he was thinking about how everything would go wrong in his life. Starting with Bucky’s reaction to them just being in bed together asleep.

The door swung open again and his roommate stood there looking at him, “We need to talk,” Bucky said, and Tony knew that this was the moment where he would lose his first college friend, all because he fell for their ex-boyfriend.

Tony nodded, before getting up and walking out of the room towards the bathroom, he needed a moment, and this was the only way that he was going to get it. He needed to think about this clearly, he wasn’t sure that anything had happened, but it had, it wasn’t a dream at all, and as excited as he was, he was also scared. He couldn’t risk getting in between Bucky and Steve, it would harm Natasha’s relationship, and that was something that he wasn’t willing to risk. They all deserved happiness, even if Tony would have to give his up in the end.

When he got back, Bucky was dressed in a dark blue shirt, he was tying up his boots over his pants, never really looking up to meet Tony’s eyes. “We should get breakfast, since we’re up early,” was all he said and Tony wasn’t sure what to think, he just hummed in agreement, before throwing on Rhodey’s MIT sweatshirt, the one he had given Tony over Thanksgiving. It was like armor for him, someone who was close enough to protect him when everything went to shit.

He was still wearing the jeans he had on the night before, so he slipped his feet into a pair of chucks and walked out the door, Bucky waiting on the other side for him. They walked to the dining hall in silence, hell this was the first time that Tony had seen the place so empty. He grabbed the largest cup they had and filled it with coffee, before filling a plate with some food. He needed something to make it seem like he was alright, and not freaking out about the fact that he ruined one friendship while falling in love.

“Steve is the kind of person who would throw his whole heart at someone,” Bucky told him without preamble. “I hurt him I know this, and as weird as this is, because it’s weird, I’ve noticed him acting funny around me.”

“Sorry,” Tony said looking down at his eggs, not sure if he actually wanted to eat them, his stomach a little uneasy.

“Stevie was my first everything,” Bucky continued ignoring Tony’s apology. “He was my first friend, first love, first kiss, and I knew it wasn’t going to last from day one, we could be friends, but we sucked as a couple. But I know him better than anyone, so this blindsided me a little.”

Tony was about to say something, but Bucky shook his head. “It’s even weirder because I’m dating your sister, and you’re okay with that, but I feel stupid because I didn’t see this coming.”

“I was trying to stop it from happening, but I really like him,” Tony told his roommate, the truth was always the best way to go, he knew this from experience, but mostly because he couldn’t lie for shit. “He sees me, he sees what everyone else doesn’t, to him I’m not Tony Stark the kid genius in the Stark family, I’m just Tony the guy who writes fanfiction, talks about robots and likes studying.”

“I know, he hasn’t stopped talking about Iron Man since he first saw the picture on your wall, I can tell when something has caught his interest, but I just want to be the one to protect him, because to me he has always been the one to take care of everyone.”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“I know, and I know you won’t, you’re so different from him, but in some ways, I see how the differences complete him in ways I couldn’t. I guess it’s just weird, to have to finally let go of all of the damage I did when I ended things.”

“He cares about you,” Tony said actually thinking about all of the ways he felt when Steve looked over at Bucky, not knowing that there was two ways to look at a person. “I thought that he was still pining for you until last night,” Tony could feel the heat rising up to his cheeks, he had been so preoccupied about how Steve was in love with Bucky that he had missed every little detail of how Steve looked at him.

“Yeah good luck with that theory, it’s weird and unnatural, I love your sister.... wait that sounds weird.”

“It’s not, I’ve seen how happy she is, well at least the little amount of time I’ve seen her, I’ve been a little busy.”

“Yeah, I noticed, and I don’t mean by tutoring Steve, I saw your class schedule, and I know you go to the library and spend hours in the robotics lab. How you haven’t fallen apart is beyond me.”

“Is it okay... you know... if I like Steve?”

“It’s okay, but we need to set up some ground rules on this, because I don’t want to walk in on you two doing things.... yup.... nope not thinking about that.”

“All we did was kiss nothing else,” Tony said in his defense.

“I know, he’s too good to try anything else, trust me we never got past kissing and maybe the occasional groping session, his mother would have castrated me if I had done anything to her boy,” Bucky let out a shiver that frightened Tony a little, he was afraid that Steve’s parents wouldn’t like him, that they would think he’s just like Bucky or something. “Don’t worry Mama Rogers would love you, she always said that Steve would end up with someone special, and honestly no one is more special that the youngest son of the Stark Family.”

“How am I special, I’m just myself.”

“Yeah but you did the one thing that no one could, think about it Tony, Steve hated Captain America with a passion since he was a kid, and seeing the good ole Captain from your perspective has changed that, his mother said that the person who fell in love with Steve would be able to love both parts of him and as much as Steve hates to say it, Captain America is just like him in so many ways.”

“I thought his father started the series when he had been born?”

“Yeah but somehow Steve had the same do gooder personality, he hated bullies growing up, he always broke the rules if it meant that someone would benefit from the outcome, usually those people were in need of help in some way or another. In a way he grew up to be the one thing he hated, and you are the first person to give him the perspective to see Captain America as something more than his father’s creation.”

“Oh, I never thought of it that way,” all he had done was created a story where he would work with Cap, he hadn’t known it could have any kind of impact on anyone especially the person it had been based on.

“Anyway, rules, you guys can kiss but please keep it PG I don’t want to walk in on something that I shouldn’t be seeing,” Bucky said shivering as he said it, almost as if the thought of Tony and Steve doing anything would scar him for life.

“The same goes for you and Nat, I don’t want to die from seeing that, especially because she’s really good with knives, and I don’t want one flung at me if I walked in by accident.”

“Deal,” Bucky said with a smile. “Second, double dates are allowed, but you and Steve can’t pick, he has terrible tastes in dates.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yeah I do, one time on a date he took me to a field and set up a telescope to see some meteor shower,” Bucky said but Tony’s heart skipped a beat, that was something that he would have liked, he could see himself and Steve just making wishes on falling stars. “There was also that time in Junior year where we went into the city and he took me to some random Shawarma place, he swore that it was because we had never tried something like that.”

“But that’s just being adventurous, trying new things, but also doing the things you like,” Tony said, he loved Shawarma, there was a place not far from the mansion that he went to all of the time, the owners knew him and usually had a place for him to sit where no one, not even the paparazzi, would bother him.

“Yeah I guess,” Bucky sighed. “Maybe it just wasn’t my thing.”

“Do you like the dates you go on with Nat?”

“Yeah, we went to a paintball place last weekend, she creamed me,” Bucky answered with a smile almost as if being beating with little paint ball pellets by Natasha was some kind of foreplay, which honestly is shouldn’t be, he knew how much those things hurt. “I also liked watching her dance in the gym a few nights ago, and we went to an MMA fight too.”

“See you two are alike in some ways, but also different in others because I’m pretty certain that you wouldn’t like to sit through an entire ballet.”

“Not really, but if it’s with her I think I would, she gets this sparkle in her eyes when she talks about being in the Nutcracker.”

“Yeah it was her favorite, mom had been so proud if her for it,” Tony had remembered that day, mainly because he had been proud of her too, but also because he had learned all of the musical pieces and played them for her on the piano so that she could practice at home. He hadn’t realized just how much he misses hanging out with his sister, but he knew that this whole separation thing would have happened eventually.

“Anyway, should we have any other rules?” Bucky asked him before digging into Tony’s eggs, before Tony tried to take them back.

“I don’t have anything,” he answered knowing that he had to get something else to eat now that his roommate had scarfed down his breakfast and head off to his room just so he could go to the robotics lab. “I’ll see you later,” he called out to Bucky before rushing to get a bagel and another cup of coffee and running off towards the dorm for his backpack.

It was the next day when he remembered something that Steve had said before he had run off that morning, Tony had gone to class and then off to the robotics lab to finish his bot so that he could submit it as his final project for one of his classes utterly forgetting that Steve had told him several things. Just seeing Bucky come home to get ready for the party was enough to remind Tony that he needed to talk to Steve in person about the future of their relationship.

“Decide if you’re going to go while I shower,” Bucky had told him, and although Tony really had to finish his bot by this weekend, he was tempted to actually go.

“Let me think about it,” he said instead of what his mind was telling him, because he needed a moment to get his head on straight.

“Well it’s up to you,” Bucky said as he walked out, his shower caddy in his hand, because the guy had long hair and of course he needed to get the smell of his job out of it before a date.

Tony sat there for five minutes, having a weirdly structured debate in his head about the merits of seeing Steve, versus finishing his project. Things like, he needed a break, he needed to eat, and maybe seeing Steve would recharge him. But also, the doom and gloom in his head over whether he would finish the bot in time, because the project was worth more to him than most people thought. He had ignored his fiction writing project, not finding the energy to actually work on it at the moment, not as all of his projects started piling up on top of one another.

He was looking at a picture of Captain America and Iron Man on his wall when he made the decision to go, he wanted to talk to Steve, not just about math or Tony’s stories, or their lives, or even coffee, he just want to be near him and talk to him about any number of random things that have popped into his head. It was weird that everything circled back to his relationship, well non relationship right now, with Steve. He stood up and grabbed a cable knit sweater, because as fun as it is to wear Rhodey’s sweaters all of the time, he actually wanted to look nice. Standing in front of the mirror he messed with his unruly curls in hopes of them looking at least a little decent, wondering if he should change his glasses for his contacts, when Bucky kicked the door open, slamming it into Tony’s head.

“Ouch,” he called out as he stumbled towards his bed. “You really should stop doing that.”

“Yeah... not going to happen,” Bucky said walking over as he pulled his wet hair into a bun. “What were you thinking anyway, you know I always do that so why would you stand behind the door?”

“Because that’s where the mirror is genius,” he answered rubbing his head, thankfully the mirror was intact, and so were Tony’s glasses.

“You changed your clothes... so does that mean you’re going?”

“I was thinking about it.”

“And most likely second guessing yourself in the process. Just go, I know he would want to see you, and if you’re trying this hard to look your best you want to see him too.”

“Okay,” he said knowing that in a way Bucky was right, plus they needed to sort out their lives a little. Tony actually wanted to know where they stood in all of this, he wanted to know that there was something to look forward to.

They had to take the campus shuttle towards where Steve’s house was, this was something that Tony hadn’t known, mainly because Steve was almost always nearby so Tony had assumed that his place was within walking distance. But he also knew that Steve had a car so most likely he drove towards campus and at times went out of his way to make sure that Tony got home safe from the library. It was things like this that Tony knew they needed to talk about, because even though they talked they didn’t talk about the mundane things in their lives. He wanted to know more about Steve Rogers, for some reason he craved it, but it also scared him.

Somewhere during the walk from the shuttle stop to Steve’s place, Tony had noticed that Natasha and Jan had both joined them, his mind muddled in the million things he needed to talk to Steve about, on top of everything that he had to finish for the end of the semester. Tony saw the smile on his sister’s face, he knew she was happy, but in his mind, he wondered if he could have the same thing that she did. If it were possible for him to be able to have something that was separate of his family obligations.

They entered the house and Tony could feel the bass of the music flood over him, he was familiar with the loud reverberations, he usually listened to his music on the same volume, but for some reason this was just adding to the pounding of his heart and he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or if he would have a heart attack and die at that moment.

“Have you seen Steve,” Bucky asked someone near the door, but Tony didn’t hear the answer. “He’s in the kitchen,” Bucky told him before pushing him towards the kitchen at the other end of the house, he watched as Bucky turned back towards Natasha and kissed her before motioning for Tony to go and talk to Steve.

He made his way through the crowd, slowly weaving his way through everyone, wondering why they were having a party when the end of the semester didn’t happen for another week and a half, but they probably just needed some time off. Tony nearly bumped into the drinks table as the throng of people pushed him forward. It was weird because there wasn’t more than fifty people in the house, but in his mind, he felt like there were a million of them and he was just moving like molasses just to get to his destination.

Once he was at the door, wondering why they had a door to the kitchen, but it was one of those swinging doors, and of course there he was distracting himself with something so dumb as to think about the mechanics of a door like this in a house that should have a more open concept design. He took a deep breath and pushed the door, only to be faced with Steve’s back and some blonde girl with her hands on his face, her head slightly tilted, kissing Steve and breaking Tony’s heart. He had waited too long, and he knew this, this was the consequences of him being too involved in his project. He lost Steve, he heard Bucky’s curse just as Tony walked away, grabbing a nearby liquor bottle and walking out of the house not hearing Bucky calling out for him. He didn’t care, all he knew was that he took a chance and got burned, just like all of his other relationships. The only thing he had left were his robots, and he was going to make sure that the one he was working on would be the best one he could make.

Steve on the other hand was oblivious to everything that had happened, the party had started the same way they always do, Sam hounding him about Sharon, because for some reason Sam couldn’t gather up the courage to ask her out, even after all of this time. Especially since everyone knew that she had a major crush on Steve, even though he had told her that he wasn’t interested the year before. He wondered if Tony would show up, mainly because he hadn’t heard from the genius at all, but he was certain that Tony was engrossed in some project somewhere on campus. He had looked up one of Tony’s classes and noticed that it was a master’s level class, so he knew that Tony was in classes that were more advanced than Steve’s were. So, the coursework was a lot more rigorous, it had made him wonder whether he would ever see one of Tony’s inventions up close and personal.

Steve had made his way to the kitchen, mainly to get away from all of the noise and to get something to eat, he was debating whether or not he should just leave and go hang out with Tony. Deciding that he would have a better time just hanging out with Tony, even if all Tony would talk about was his project, he grabbed some food and went to look for a bag to put them in smiling as he did it. He was about to leave, when the door swung open behind him and all of a sudden Sharon was standing in front of him with a smile on her face.

“So,” she said, and he knew that she was all confidence at this moment, which would only hurt the moment he had to let her down again. “I was thinking that maybe, we could talk about us.”

“There’s no us Sharon, I told you last semester,” he told her for what felt like the millionth time in his mind.

“I know, it’s just... well I was thinking that we could actually talk about it. I know that last year you were getting over that whole thing with Bucky, so you were within your right to take some time for yourself, but Bucky’s moved on... several times. And now maybe you can too.”

“Honestly,” he said just as Sharon placed her hand on his cheek, and he knew at that moment that he didn’t have the same reaction as when he was close to Tony. He heard the door swing open, but he knew that he needed to deal with Sharon and maybe get her to think about Sam a little more. He heard someone curse behind him before the door swung shut once again, leaving him alone to deal with this one issue before going to find Tony.

“Sharon, I don’t see you that way,” he said with a smile as he pulled her hand away. “I mean you’re a great girl, but there’s someone I really like and I’m hoping that he likes me the same way I like him.”

“Oh,” she said her face turning a little pink. “I didn’t know.”

“Not a lot of people do, actually I think I can count on one hand the amount of people that know, but I also know that there’s someone out there for you, and it’s probably someone really close, you just have to open up to the possibility of that relationship happening.”

“I don’t know,” she started but Steve gave her a small smile.

“Sam likes you Sharon, he’s asked me a million things about you, but for some reason when it comes to even trying to ask you out, he starts to talk about everything but,” Steve was almost certain that when it came to Sam actually saying something, it was more along the lines of how Steve couldn’t really say anything to Tony for a long time, well until he found the one thing that Tony could help him with.

“Really,” she said her face lighting up, “I thought he had a crush on Bucky our first semester here, so I tried not to look his way.”

“What, what do you mean, they fought that whole year,” Steve said knowing that while Buck was bi, Sam was as straight as an arrow. “They fought because of me, Sam was pissed at Bucky because of what had happened, not because he liked him that way.”

“Oh, I guess I misread somethings,” she said, looking down at her hands while twisting one of the rings on her finger.

“Maybe,” he said wondering what she could have seen that was different than what had happened.

“God Damn it Steve,” Bucky yelled causing both him and Sharon to jump as the door slammed against the wall, Tony’s sister Natasha not far behind his best friend.

“I’m just going to go,” Sharon said inching towards the door.

“Make sure you talk to Sam,” he said just before she walked out giving him a nod. He turned towards the angry red head in front of him, just as Bucky put his arm around her waist.

“He has it coming James,” she said but Steve was just confused, before he could say anything her hand was in front of his face, connecting with his cheek as she slapped him, albeit a lot harder than he thought she could for someone so small.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” he asked rubbing his cheek, just as Natasha lunged towards him again, before she could do anything Bucky grabbed her and placed her near the counter.

“Stay,” he said to Natasha before turning towards Steve, “I thought you liked Tony,” Bucky added, and Steve was a little confused about why he was saying that.

“I do, I was getting ready to go see him when Sharon came into the room,” he said in his own defense, the food still on the counter because he never found the bag. “She’s should be talking to Sam right now actually.”

“Wait... what,” Bucky said looking at him dumbstruck. “You two weren’t in here kissing?”

Steve looked at his best friend in shock, he wasn’t sure what the hell was happening, “What, Buck no, she wanted to, but I pulled away.”

“Shit, this isn’t good,” Bucky said just as Natasha groaned, which meant he was missing something, something huge. “Tony was here.”

“I didn’t see him,” Steve said but they both looked at him with a sadness in their eyes.

“He walked in on what he thought, hell what I thought, was you and Sharon kissing,” Bucky said, and Steve knew that his eyes were wide, he knew that somehow the one thing he had been excited about he had somehow messed up, even if was because of misunderstanding.

“We didn’t do anything,” he said in his own defense. “I was packing snacks, so I could go talk to Tony, because I know he’s really busy with his finals, mine are a cake walk compared to the ones he has. I just wanted to see him work, maybe draw a little, I’ve never had a moving subject, well not one like Tony, and I’ve been wanting to draw him for weeks.”

“Well this just got a million times more complicated,” Natasha said as she leaned into Bucky while rubbing her face, “And we don’t know where he went either, because his first instinct is to go somewhere that no one would be able to follow.

“The robotics lab,” Steve said his heart painfully breaking in his chest. “It’s the one place I’m sure that he would go, because it’s the one place we can’t really follow him.”

He couldn’t look up to see what Bucky and Natasha were talking about, he couldn’t hear them anyway over the pounding in his ears, it was weird that one moment he was on top of the world and the next it can come crashing down. He wasn’t sure if Tony would listen to him, not unless he talked to Sharon, or even checked with his own sister.

“Don’t worry Steve,” Bucky said but even Steve knew that it wasn’t what he wanted to hear at that moment.

“Give him some time,” Natasha added though from the look in her eyes, even she knew that it would take a lot for Tony to actually listen to him. This was that wrong place wrong time moment, and it broke his heart to think that he could have lost something good before it even started. “Steve, Tony’s been burned by people before, but if I have to sit him down and talk to him about this I will.”

“Thanks Natasha,” he said trying his best to smile before walking out of the kitchen, the food on the counter left behind, before walking past everyone at the party, his friends smiling and happy. Sharon and Sam talking to one another, as if they had finally gotten on the same page, but without Tony everything felt out of place and he hated it. He walked up to his room on the top floor, because no one wanted to live in the attic, but it was private and something that Steve never really had at home, not when he had his brothers around all the time. There, alone for the first time that night, he cried over what he had just lost.

“Steve,” Bucky said from the other side of the door, and Steve knew that he wasn’t ready to talk to anyone. “We need to talk for a sec.”

“Fine,” he said his voice low, he wasn’t sure what he should do, he wanted to run over to Tony, to talk to him and fix everything, but then he remembered what had happened when Bucky and him had broken up and he didn’t know if the same tactic would actually work.

The door to his room opened and Bucky found him sitting on the edge of the bed, he knew he looked like hell, and this had only happened within the last twenty minutes. But Buck didn’t say anything, he just sat down next to him and stayed quiet for a moment, letting Steve cry right there. For some reason it felt like the end of the world to him, which was stupid because he’s known Tony for barely four months, but this is different than what he had with Bucky.

“So, Nat told me, that you should wait at least a day or so before trying to talk to Tony,” Bucky said, and Steve didn’t know what to think about this. “She only said this because I told her about how you had been when we had broken up before freshman year. Tony’s not the kind of person you can bombard like you did with me, she said that you have to try slowly, because he’s going to push you away if you try too much too fast.”

“Do you think I have a chance at fixing this?” he asked because he wanted to know that he would get that second chance at having someone as great as Tony Stark.

“I think you do, but you have to start by giving him a little space, don’t go running over to the dorm all gun ho, trying to be yourself, you have to think of this strategically.”

“I’m not like that.”

“Steve when I broke it off with you, you were at my door an hour later trying to fix things, I know I had been the one to break it off, but I hadn’t expected you to try to fix it so quickly, and then I had to break your heart even more. I sometimes wish we had never dated because even now you don’t treat me like you did when we had just been friends, you act like you’re going to lose our friendship all over again if you say or do the wrong thing.”

“Sorry,” he told him, knowing that he needed to understand this and figure out what to do that won’t send Tony running the other way.

“Give him some space and maybe on Wednesday you can come over, since it’s the one day he’s always been at the dorm, mainly because that’s usually when you’re there, so hopefully he’ll try and be there.”

“Okay,” was all he said before leaning back and thinking of how he was going to get Tony to understand that what he had seen had been a huge misunderstanding.


	8. Chapter 8

He was hungover drunk if that was even a phrase, he knew this for sure, he knew that he shouldn’t have grabbed that bottle of whatever the hell that had been.... Jack maybe, who knows, but he was drunk, and he had coded his final project drunk. The whole weekend had been a weird blur, but his professor was standing in front of him, amazed at Tony’s creation, but Tony knew that it was flawed in so many ways. He wouldn’t change anything about the bot, because he valued the machine like it was his own child, just like little Butterfingers, but this one was so dumb, and he hoped that the learning aspect of its coding would help fix that over time.

“What are you calling it,” his professor asked as the bot followed his movements.

“I’m not sure just yet, he’s still in the prototype phase, I need to ensure that his coding works, but hopefully once done this could be helpful for uses within an automated workshop,” Tony answered, although he was sure that the bot would be called DUM-E, because he was a little well dummy. In a way he was Tony’s crash test dummy, the thing that would help him create better versions of his projects, including his bots.

“Good work,” his professor said before walking off to another project.

Tony already knew that he was going to pass the class, the only course that he was really worried about was his fiction writing class, and lately it felt like the more he thought about it, after everything that had happened in the last few weeks, that maybe just maybe he had made a mistake. The whole thing with Steve had probably been a mistake, the whole first semester had been a huge mistake. He was a genius, but he had felt so stupid just giving up a huge opportunity at M.I.T. just to go to some small school.

When class was over, he just went straight to the library, fearing that Steve would just show up, because of all things in this world, Tony’s roommate was also his best friend and ex all rolled into one. He hadn’t even gone back to his room since the party, he had hidden out in the robotics lab with his bottle of whatever the hell that was, slowly drinking while at the same time creating. That’s how his bot had been finished, in an alcohol fuel haze, and he had been afraid that the whole project would have been a failure on his part. But in the end the bot had come to life and everything kept going, except his own heart.

At least the library was quiet, Ty was typing away at Tony’s laptop, finishing the story they had been working on for the last couple of weeks. Tony had done most of the work on it, Ty had just written the dialogue and added things here and there. It was the only thing in the school that he had left, which was alright for that moment.

“Did you finish your story for class?” Ty asked him as he typed away, forcing Tony to acknowledge that Tony had not in fact written anything at all.

“Started it,” Tony lied, he didn’t want Ty to know that he was struggling to start at all. “How’s yours coming along.”

“Really well, almost done with it and everything,” Ty said with a smile on his face, while looking at their story. “I honestly think it’s my best work.”

“Well I can’t wait to read it when you’re done,” Tony told him, knowing that making at least one friend outside of Bucky and Steve was good for him.

“You already have, you’ve been helping me with it for the last couple of weeks,” Ty told him, but it felt more like being hit by a truck. The story they had been working on, the one outside of the one that they had done for class, where Tony honestly did more work on than Ty.

“Ty you can’t hand that in,” Tony said shocked that Ty was even thinking of submitting it at all. “I wrote half of that story.”

“No, I wrote most of it, you just cleaned it up for me,” Ty was defending himself against all of the work that Tony had done on a story they had both worked on. “Tony, you’re a good writer and I’m glad you helped me, but this is my story.”

It was the train wreck that this was his life, he had worked on this and now someone was taking it away from him. Just like him and Steve had been close to being something and someone took that from him too. He couldn’t figure out where he had gone wrong with everything, or why this kept happening to him. Taking his laptop from Ty, he sent the story off to him, he didn’t care about it anymore, it would just be a reminder of something else that he thought he had with another person, someone he thought of as a friend, Ty could have it.

“Take it I don’t give a damn,” he said as he packed everything up, he was fed up with the whole semester, it was ending horribly and now this was just the icing on the damn cake.

“Oh please, the poor little rich boy, it’s my story more than yours you don’t have a claim towards it,” Ty said to him, but Tony only stopped packing when he realized what Ty had said, he had never told Ty who he was, not even that his family had money. “Just because you’re a Stark doesn’t mean you get to have everything.”

That was the moment when the whole disaster of his life came crashing down, it was one thing for Steve and Bucky to know who he was, for his professors to know and keep it secret so that he could just be a regular person. But Ty knew, and Tony wasn’t sure why, but it hurt him even more, probably because he thought that for once in his life, he would get the chance at being normal, but of course the universe had other ideas.

“How long have you known about who I was?” he asked knowing that the answer would just hurt more than anything else.

“I’ve known since before you started at this school, and so fucking what,” Ty answered and of course this would be the case. “My parents told me to get close to the Stark kid, but I thought it would have been harder for me to get anywhere near you, I didn’t think you’d be in my department, I was surprised that you were in my class. It worked in my family’s favor in the end considering your dad and mine are in talks over something, and all my dad had to do was mention that we were classmates.”

In his head Tony was screaming, hell he was punching Ty in the face because that’s what he actually wanted to do, but he couldn’t have a scandal on his hands, he didn’t want to get expelled from school, instead he closed his bag and said “Goodbye Ty, I hope I never see you again.”

“Don’t be like that Tony,” Ty called out, and he probably would have stopped Tony if he could, but Ty was technically at work and he couldn’t leave the library, which made running off all the better. He felt so stupid, he was a smart kid, his family told him this, but apparently when it came to reading people he was the dumbest person in the world.

It was cold and dark outside, usually this was where Steve would show up to walk him home, a big doofy grin on his face and a cup of his latest Starbucks creation just for Tony. Instead Tony started crying right outside the library, wanting for the whole world to swallow him whole just so that he could be alone. He wanted to scream out at the unfairness of it all, but instead he took a couple of hiccupped breaths before slowly walking towards his dorm. The whole semester had been a disaster, and if something else happened he wasn’t sure that he would survive it.

To his surprise, Steve was actually sitting near the library, a sad look on his face almost like someone had kicked a puppy in front of him. Tony wasn’t sure that he was ready for this conversation, he wasn’t ready for any of this. The whole weekend had been a disaster, and he was still nursing a hangover from his weekend inventing binge.

“I know you don’t really want to see me,” Steve started, and Tony wasn’t sure if he could run fast enough to get away from Steve and this conversation. Steve well, one he was taller than him and he was also very athletic if the feel of those muscles the week before had been any kind of indicator. “I have to tell you something.”

“Steve,” he started just wanting everything to end, he just wanted to disappear and vanish from his own life.

“Let me please because if I know anything, it’s that this whole thing is one giant misunderstanding.”

“I saw you with another girl, at your so-called party,” Tony said his heart breaking all over again. “There’s no way around that.”

“Yeah except for the part where nothing happened,” Steve told him not even getting up from the bench he was on. Tony could tell that Steve was cold, almost as if he had been sitting there for so long just waiting for him to get out of the library, because Steve knew where he went all of the time. “Tony, I was rejecting Sharon when whatever it was you saw happened, you can ask Bucky, hell you can ask Natasha because she slapped me thinking that I broke your heart.”

“Yeah well you kind of did,” Tony said sighing as he sat down on the same bench but far enough away from Steve that they weren’t touching. He wasn’t sure if he could touch Steve again and never stop.

“No, I didn’t, I was in the kitchen packing up some snacks, because as fun as a party was I would rather sit with you wherever you were and draw while you just talked about anything, I was getting ready to leave when Sharon cornered me.”

“What did you tell her,” Tony asked, wanting to twist the knife already in his heart because that’s the only thing he could think of doing just so he could be near Steve for even a little while. “That you wanted to be with her?”

“No, I told her that Sam was in love with her and that I already had someone that I wanted to be with,” Steve turned towards him and took his hand letting Tony feel just how cold they felt. “Tony I was going to leave a party with some of the best people I know because I would rather have been with you,” Tony felt his breath hitch at the words because there was no way that this was happening at this moment. “I want to be with you and only you. I want to take you camping.”

“I’m not good with the outdoors,” Tony said but he knew that with Steve no matter where they went it would have been perfect, it was silly things, like the dates that Bucky had told him about, they were the kind of things that he would love to do with Steve.

“That’s okay, as long as it’s just you and me and the stars in the sky nothing else matters, this is what I wanted to tell you the other night before everything went to shit.”

“Did Natasha really hit you,” he said looking at nothing but Steve’s hand in his, he didn’t know what to believe, but he knew that Steve wouldn’t just sit out in the cold for who knows how long just to break things off with him. “I mean she could have stabbed you, she has knives.”

“Yes, she did, she also talked to Sharon after I rushed off, and then she talked to Sam, and in the end she knew that it was all just one big misunderstanding.”

“Why did you wait until now to tell me this,” Tony said not wanting to fear the worse about why Steve hesitated to talk to him.

“They told me not to rush over to you, that you wouldn’t take any of it well.”

“Well they’re stupid, all of them are just stupid, I got so drunk this whole weekend and invented a very dumb bot, but I love him, and I named him DUM-E so that doesn’t matter,” he all of a sudden felt stupid for overreacting to the whole thing. “I’m sorry, I should have talked to you before freaking out.”

“Tony, this is on me,” Steve said trying to interrupt but Tony just shook his head.

“No this is on both of us, I shouldn’t have run, I was just a little insecure about whatever it was that we were, I had to talk myself into going to that party in the first place, I went into it waiting for you to tell me that that night was all a dream, that you didn’t really want to be with me.”

“You don’t need to question it, I really like you Tony, not because of your family, or who the world thinks you are, but as the guy who wears sweaters that are too long.”

“They’re my best friend’s sweaters, I steal them from Rhodey because it feels like home.”

Steve smiled at that him. “You can steal mine if you want,” Steve told him before continuing. “But it’s not just that, it’s how you get excited about things, like your stories, or math, things that I usually hate but have learned to love, like Captain America, because you gave him a home in a world with friends and a family.”

“How would you know that?”

“Over the weekend, while I was agonizing over whether to run and find you or listening to everyone else and what they had to say about the whole thing, well I sat down and read everything you wrote, it wasn’t that hard to find either because no one out there would write so much about a character that didn’t exist in the comics my dad created.”

“Okay.... cool... cool... cool,” Tony answered, feeling a little weird about the whole thing, he only ever interacted with people online, Steve is the first person to tell him something like that in person.

“I even started drawing them, which was weird because I refused to pick up a Captain America comic since third grade, but I didn’t draw the version of Cap that my father did, I drew myself instead, and then I drew you as Iron Man,” Steve said, and Tony could see the blush creeping up. “I think I wanted to create my own version, because the one my father created didn’t feel real to me.”

“And yours does?”

“Yes,” Steve said do him and Tony wasn’t sure if he wanted to see this version of Cap, it wasn’t that he cared about what Cap looked like, it was just that thinking of Steve in that way would give into his childhood fantasies, the ones where he would be at Captain America’s side, fighting the bad guys, and eventually falling for the guy. “I want you to see them, but I also want you to see something else.”

“Okay,” Tony said, he didn’t care about one thing or the other, because maybe in the end all he wanted was to see something Steve had created. “I mean it’s only fair, you read my stories, so I should get the chance to see what you created.”

“Let’s go,” Steve said pulling Tony up, never letting go of his hand. It felt like it should have been there all along, and he never wanted to let go.

Instead of walking him towards the dorm, Steve pulled him towards the parking lot, Tony knew that they were going to go for a ride, but it was too surreal for him, he had been pissed at everyone over the weekend. Mostly at his own luck, so what were the odds that when one person had used him, Steve would be there to pick up the pieces. This was new, and not something that he was really expecting.

“I’m not moving too fast with this am I?” Steve asked him.

“I don’t think so,” he said feeling happy and depressed at the same time was killing him and he knew it. “It’s just that... well before you showed up, I got into a huge fight with that guy from my fiction writing class.”

Steve stopped a few feet short of his car and turned his attention fully on Tony, “Am I going to have to go after him?”

“No, it’s just that he... um... well he used me to get something, well actually let me rephrase that, he was working on a story with me, I wrote most of it and he wrote the other parts, if you think about it it’s like 60% mine and 40% his, but he decided that he was going to submit it for the final, and it pissed me off, only to find out at the same time, that his father had told him to become friends with me just to get something out of my family’s business.”

“That’s technically cheating Tony.”

“Yeah, I know, but after everything that had happened with us, and the conversation with that professor after one of my stories, I guess it’s was just the nail on the coffin on whether I should have just gone to M.I.T. like my father wanted.”

“You were thinking of leaving, but... I....”

“Don’t worry, I think somehow I decided to stay for two reasons, the first is you, Steve I know this is crazy, but just knowing you is enough for me to try and fight for whatever we could have, even if it’s just friendship.”

“It’s not, at least not for me, I want to be with you.”

“Okay,” Tony answered his face feeling flush, “But also because since I’ve been here, I’ve gotten to know you and Bucky, hell Nat and Jan are here too, and they would kill me if I even tried to leave, and I built a robot with a fully functioning AI inside of it, and while one of my stories hadn’t panned out in class, I did like all of the other ones I wrote.”

Tony put his hands-on Steve’s face, it was cold to the touch, but it felt real, “This was the first time I made a decision for myself, and you became a part of that.”

“I’m glad you made the decision to come to this school,” Steve told him as he leaned down and put his forehead against Tony’s. “Before you came here, I felt so lost, the whole thing with Bucky threw me off for so long, I was just going through the motions to just keep going without people noticing that I was being... well different. But Buck told me the other day that it felt like we weren’t even friends for a long time, but with you I felt so happy, and you gave that to me, and I want to have it for as long as you’ll let me.”

“Can you go with me to my family’s Christmas Gala?” Tony blurted out, it was weird, but in his heart, he wanted this he wanted Steve to meet his family.

Steve had spent the weekend reading everything that Tony had ever written or at least what he could find, he was certain that the one that Tony had read to him the night that they kiss hadn’t been published on any of the fanfiction websites. He knew Tony’s username, because no one but Tony had written about what Steve now dubbed as the Iron Avenger. What he had found in those stories were characters that he had never heard of, ones that he knew, and some that could be familiar if he had kept up with his father’s comics.

On Sunday he had driven home in a mad rush, to get his collection out of the basement, only to find that his father had been keeping them stored in a trunk, all hardcovers dating back to when Steve had just been a baby. He had stopped reading them a long time ago, but Tony’s version of the story had reignited something that he never thought would come.

“You know,” his father said as Steve tried to figure out where to start. “I always thought that out of all of my kids, that you’d be the one to keep these comics alive. I never thought that I would have to end any of these for a long time.”

“So why are you ending the series,” Steve had asked looking at all of the hard work that his father had put into the characters over the years.

“Because son, as young as you think I am, I can’t keep up with drawing and writing all of these series, the Spider-man series is taking off, mainly because Peter is so excited about it and sometimes helps with filling in the color on his computer after I’ve drawn everything out,” his father said a fond smile on his face. “But my hand cramps up sometimes, and I’m not sure how long I can keep going without getting carpal tunnel and losing the ability to create.”

“Plus, the twins on the way,” Steve said, his parents weren’t old, but they worked harder for their family than anyone Steve has ever known.

“Yes, and I want to spend time with them as well, you don’t know what tomorrow may bring.”

Honestly speaking he hadn’t known that when the semester had started that he would have found Tony, it had been luck on his part that Bucky would get to be Tony’s roommate. This what destiny felt like, a moment of pure coincidence that brought something special into his life. He had barely slept the whole weekend, reading as much as he could, before starting on a brand-new sketchbook. Drawings of Iron Man and Captain America, the whole team as Tony saw it, and in the end, the last few pages it had all turned into drawings of Tony as Steve saw him, right before he fell asleep on the bed, the sketchbook in his arms.

Now, with Tony asking him to the gala everything felt so surreal in a way, mainly because he was sure that Tony would have told him to leave and never see him again without letting him explain a single thing. All he could do was smile, because he had been ready to beg, but now he just wanted to scold Bucky and Nat for telling him to stay away when he should have at least tried sooner to talk to Tony.

“Tony, I’ll go anywhere as long as I’m there standing next to you,” he said before opening the car door. “Now come on, I have something to show you.”

“I honestly don’t know if I want to see whatever this is,” Tony said getting in the car and closing the door. Steve rushed to the other side and got in, only now realizing just how cold he felt. “I’m afraid that I’m hallucinating this whole thing and that I went into a coma last week, and you never kissed me and that this is just some form of hell.”

Before Tony could keep going Steve took his hand before leaning over and kissing the genius on the lips for the second time since they met. It was soft, and tentative, but it made it feel real to Steve. Before pulling away he pinched Tony’s hand causing Tony to yelp out at the pain.

“Did that feel real?” Steve said with a smile playing on his lips, his face inches from Tony’s.

“It hurt that’s what that feel like,” Tony said running his hand, never really taking his eyes off of Steve, probably thinking of how to retaliate. “But yeah, it felt real.”

“Good,” Steve told him before kissing him again and sitting back. Turning the car on and driving off. There weren’t a lot of cars out on the road, so getting back to the house was easy, but once there he could see the hesitation in Tony’s eyes. Steve knew it was because of what had happened the week before, one misunderstanding nearly ruined something that had just started.

“I don’t know about this,” Tony said but Steve just pulled him towards the door. “The last time I came here it was a disaster.”

“It’s going to be fine Tony, you know nothing happened, I’ve been nothing but honest with you from the moment we met.”

“Lies,” Tony said but Steve knew that he was just joking from the little smile that had popped up afterwards. After taking a deep breath next to Steve, Tony whispered, “Okay.”

Walking into the house and seeing it from Tony’s eyes was one thing that Steve had never thought about before now. The living room was the first thing you saw, the dining room was turned into a makeshift study area before the door to the kitchen. All of the people who lived in the house played baseball, but they were all on scholarship as well, so they had to study no matter what to keep their grades up. They only had parties at the end of the semester, and if they won a game during the season, other than those days the house was pretty quiet give or take the random sessions of them playing on one of the video game consoles.

Sam and Sharon were sitting on the couch watching a movie, and he knew that this was something that Tony would have to see, Sharon sitting next to Sam was enough to show Tony that there was nothing between Steve and her. “Sam,” Steve called out causing Sam to turn towards them.

“Hey man,” Sam said before getting up. “I didn’t think that you would ever leave that room of yours.”

“I left yesterday,” he called out in his defense. “Sam, Sharon, this is Tony.”

There was a brief moment where something flickered in Tony’s eyes, Steve wondered if it was the fact that Sharon had been the one that he had seen with Steve, but then there was something in Sharon’s eyes as well before the two of them were smiling.

“Hey,” Sharon called out smiling at Tony. “I haven’t seen you since your birthday party back in May,” she said to Tony.

“Yeah, well I’ve been a little busy,” Tony was rubbing his head and now Steve worried that there was something there that he had missed, it felt like everything reversed itself all of a sudden. “How’s Aunt Peggy? I haven’t called her in a while.”

“She’s good, she moved back to England over the summer, but she’s doing great,” Sharon then turned her attention to Steve, and he didn’t know what to think about what was happening. “If I had known,” she said to Steve, even though he was still a little dumbstruck.

“How do you two know each other,” Sam asked, knowing full well who Tony was, there was no denying that Tony himself was a presence no matter how much he tried hiding himself at the school.

“My Aunt Peggy is Tony’s Godmother, we grew up together,” Sharon said before walking over and pulling Tony into her arms. “And if I had known that you were the one that Steve had a crush on, I wouldn’t have tried to take him away from you,” she told Tony. “But I guess it’s more your fault since I didn’t even know that you were going to this school.”

“Yeah well, I didn’t know you went here either, I came because it had everything I wanted and none of the legacy shit that all of the other schools had been trying to sell, plus... I met Steve,” Tony said, and Steve could see the blush creeping up onto his cheeks.

“It’s a really small world,” Sam said, and Steve hummed his agreement.

“I wonder just how small it really is,” Sharon said before going back to her spot next to Sam. “Especially with all of the misunderstandings going around.”

“It’s in the past,” Steve said before pulling Tony away. “I’m going to show Tony something upstairs, so call if you need anything.”

“Don’t do anything mean to him,” Sharon called out as they disappeared up the stairs. “I’ll come after you if you do.”

“She really would, I think she trains with Nat when I’m not looking, but that’s only because Sharon wants to work in the FBI or something,” Tony said as they climbed up the three flights of stairs to the attic bedroom. “Jesus Rogers, why do you live all the way up here, are you trying to kill me.”

Steve smiled at him before opening the door, “Yeah well this room is special,” he said as they walked in, the moon light washing the room in a slight glow, “There’s a skylight up here, plus everyone else complained because it was so high up, but I loved it the moment I saw it.”

“Do you like the stars?” Tony asked him, and Steve couldn’t help but remember that night the week before, although now it feels like an eternity ago. He remembered how the light from the moon had made Tony all but glow in Steve’s eyes.

“I like that there’s a possibility that I can look at them and the person I like would be looking at the same stars as I am, that we could live under the same sky and one day find each other.”

“Oh, well... um...”

“Yes, I know it’s a little silly.”

“It’s not, it’s actually really romantic in a way... I don’t think anyone has ever really said something like that to me.”

Steve took Tony’s hand in his and stood there for a moment looking right into Tony’s eyes, “If no one has ever said that to you, then they don’t know what they were missing, and I’m glad that I’m the one who got the chance to say it.”

He didn’t really want to let go of Tony’s hand, but he wanted Tony to see what he had done, mainly because for the longest time, Steve hadn’t wanted to create anything like the superheroes he had grown up with. Pulling Tony towards the bed, he sat him down before going to his drafting table and grabbing the sketchbook he had been using all weekend and handing it to Tony.

“Some of them aren’t my best work, others were just outlines but... um,” he said looking down at Tony’s eyes, even with his glasses on they were the most beautiful eyes in the world to Steve, and the one thing that had haunted him all weekend. “There’s a lot of you in these pages, I wanted to talk to you so much that I just started drawing your face the way I remembered.”

There was a moment when Steve had handed him the sketchbook, where Tony wasn’t sure how to feel, he knew that Steve was an art major, he knew that Steve was the inspiration for his father when it came to Captain America. But there was also the fact that he had never seen anything that Steve had drawn up until now, with the exception of the Captain America and Iron Man drawing he had given Tony the week before.... before the whole misunderstanding. He was scared of how Steve saw him, it felt too intimate in so many ways, but he didn’t know if Steve saw him in a way that Tony would hate.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the book and saw picture after picture of the Iron Man armor, the way he had described it in his stories, or a variation of the drafts that had been up on his wall in his room. Some of them with the faceplate turned up, and what could be Tony in ten years, with a goatee and a smile. He kept turning the pages, just to see how Steve saw him and how he saw Iron Man. Then he got towards the final pages, and saw himself, his glasses sliding down his face his own arms up in the air, probably talking about something Steve didn’t understand, but that was how Steve saw him, as a passionate person.

Tony wondered about how he saw Steve, and the first image was of Steve just smiling at him, his eyes so blue it almost looked like the sky on a clear day, even though the sky didn’t really have color, but this wasn’t about science. He thought about how excited Steve was whenever he made a new coffee flavor for him, mainly because Steve was a kind person, but also because Tony was sure that Steve hid things in the coffee. How Steve’s first instinct was to keep Tony safe even when he didn’t know Tony at all, or how he always knew to be there waiting for Tony when the library closed even though it was out of his way.

When he got to the last page he saw the twenty dollar bill, the one that Tony had snuck into the tip jar all those weeks ago, under it what he saw was his own message to Steve, the paper was a little worn as if Steve had spent a long time trying to figure out what it was before he found the answer. Steve could have spent the money, he could have done anything with it, instead he put it somewhere he would always be able to find it.

“I like you too Tony,” he said to him, and Tony started crying, he wasn’t sure why, it could have been the stress from his everyday life, or everything that had happened recently. “Don’t cry Shellhead.”

“Shellhead?”

“A nickname I thought up, mainly because of Iron Man, but unique only to you,” he said wiping the tears from his eyes. “And I will go with you to the gala, if you still want me to.”

“I would, otherwise I’d be hiding in a corner waiting to go home,” Tony smiled leaning into Steve’s hands. “I don’t talk that much, it comes from the trauma of being kidnapped, but also from being in a family full of loud brothers. I think I’ve talked to you more in the last few months than I’ve ever talked to anyone outside of Natasha.”

“What about interviews and all that press stuff that your family does?”

“Usually they let me write the answers and send it to them, but mostly it’s Thor or Loki doing the talking, I tend to start talking about tech or something and everyone just looks at me weird.”

“That’s just you being you, honestly, I think you will change the world in a few years, but I’ll go, and if Natasha hasn’t kill Bucky by then he should go too.”

“Sharon goes to those parties,” Tony said reminding himself that someone he didn’t know who was also friends with Steve, was now dating his cousin.

“Are you planning on just bringing everyone I know.”

“If it makes you feel more comfortable, I mean those parties are a little crazy, the press is everywhere, and most likely it could be our first date, plus you’re going to meet my family, I just don’t want you to be overwhelmed.”

“I’m not going to be, not as long as you’re there Tony, and it’s not going to be our first date.... wait when is the gala?”

“It’s held two days before Christmas, so a week after the end of the semester,” Tony told him, the end of the semester wasn’t that far away, he still had to finish all of his projects, and at some point, write a story for his fiction writing class.

“Okay, we’ll go out this week, just you and me, get to know each other better too, maybe next weekend I could take you to meet my parents and you can talk to my dad about Iron Man.”

Tony could feel his face flush, he hadn’t thought about the fact that them dating meant meeting the creator of his favorite comic book character. “Uhh......”

“See now you’re nervous,” Steve said kissing his forehead. “We could meet each other’s families, and if we survive that we can survive anything.”

“That works,” Tony said wondering if they were going too fast with this, but he really couldn’t imagine himself doing anything any other way.


	9. Chapter 9

**_Avengers Assemble_ **

_By **IamIronMan**_

_Iron Man stood at the top of the mansion, it had been an idea, using his childhood home as a base of operations for the still forming team of heroes, so far, they only had a few, but once SHIELD and Fury got a hold of everyone, he knew that the house would be full. It had been a great idea... except for the part where no one knew his real identity and having them find out would be a problem. He needed to keep both parts of his identity separate, there was no way for them to co-exist, so he would have to hide. There was a workshop in the basement of the mansion, which would work as his own hiding place, he would still have his Manhattan apartment for days when he needed to get away, but if he put blackout windows for the workshop it would be easier to get around with and without the suit. No one would know the wiser._

_“Iron Man,” he heard Captain America say as the man out of time walked into the house. “I didn’t know you would be here.”_

_“Yeah, I work part-time for the owners, and they wanted to donate the house to the cause, so I said that I would be the one to show everyone around as they moved in,” It was the best excuse he had, it was the only one he could come up with, but it would have to do._

_“Well it’s good to see you my friend and thank you... for everything you’ve done for me,” Cap said, and he knew that it had to do with SHIELD’s little ploy to slowly bring Cap into the 21 st century._

_“It was nothing, I didn’t like their plan from the beginning, so I figured I’d help you,” he answered, knowing that Cap wouldn’t see the smile on his face through the mask, but it was nice to be acknowledged for doing something._

_Together they walked towards the living area, where people had started to gather, some amazed at the fact that they would live in such a place, but for Iron Man it was just nice that someone would be using the space. It had been empty for years, especially because he had moved out since his parents’ deaths. Black Widow was standing near Bruce Banner also known as the Hulk, talking about the differences between the Hulk and Banner. Hawkeye was talking with Spider-man who was hanging off the ceiling, while Thor was speaking of his great conquests over some battle that no one would actually know about if not for Thor’s enthusiasm._

_From this moment on, the heroes of the world would be united, they would fight together, grow together, and keep the planet safe from the threats that normal armies wouldn’t be able to fight. For Iron Man this would be their team, the people he would have to keep close, even if they didn’t know who he was beneath the mask._

* * *

If there was one thing that Steve was certain of, it was that he wanted to take Tony out on a date, and with the semester winding down, he knew that they were both busy with literally everything. They hadn’t seen one another since that night, and he hated it, but Tony was stuck writing some massive paper, and Steve had work and his classes. He should have been angry about not being able to see Tony, but he was still flying high on the thought of Tony and him doing anything together, even if it meant that they were meeting each other’s families.

So, he planned their date for Friday night while working, and he also planned on driving them to his parents on Saturday so that the next week, when Steve met Tony’s family, they would have already been through one introduction. Yes, Steve was nervous about meeting Tony’s family, but Natasha liked him, so it wouldn’t be that terrible... would it??? He couldn’t think about it too much, it would only make him nervous and then the whole thing would be a disaster.

“He likes anything with machines,” someone said to him, and Steve looked up to see a short brunette with a bob cut in front of him. “He’s also into science, but if you’re thinking about feeding him, then burgers would be the best thing in the world.”

“Uhhh... Do I know you??” he said but she just smiled and held out her hand.

“Janet Van Dyne, or Jan,” she said with a smile, the name sounded familiar to him, which meant that he’s heard it before. “I grew up with Tony and Natasha, we’ve known each other for years.”

“Oh,” he wiped his hands on his apron and held it out, he remembered Tony mentioning her being there at the school, but he also remembered that day when Tony had come into the coffee shop, Natasha had been with him as well as another person, the same person standing in front of him at that very moment. “Nice to meet you,” he said with a smile. “I’ve heard Tony talk about you, but we’ve never actually met.”

“Because he prefers his bots, and his workshop over human interaction, so he tends to forget to introduce people to his… boyfriend,” she said looking at him as if she were analyzing his worthiness.

“There is that, plus he likes to write a lot, but I’m okay with that, it’s interesting to see him get excited over something, it’s like the who universe lit up just for him.”

She looked at him as if evaluating his words before nodding. “You’re going to be good for him, especially if you feed him regularly.”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh, even when it felt like he was being judged but it was good that Tony had people who would stick up for him. “I remember that when he first started here, he was living off of iced coffees and whatever he kept in his mini fridge.”

“Yeah, but he eats now, I’m guessing it has to do with his roommate, but also with you, because most likely he asked all kinds of questions about you during those dinners with James,” He knew he was turning into a tomato but that didn’t stop her from talking. “He thought that you were dating your roommate first, and when that didn’t turn out to be true, he thought that it was Sharon, though I did fail to mention that it was the same Sharon he knew.”

“That wasn’t true either, though Sharon and I are friends, my buddy Sam had a huge crush on her.”

“Yeah I know that Sharon wanted to date Sam too, but we all thought that he was pining over Bucky, so we never put two and two together, it just shows how bad we are at matchmaking,” she sighed and looked Steve right in the eye. “Don’t hurt Tony, he doesn’t deserve it, not after everything he’s been through, and if you do, I have a pair of four-inch Jimmy Choo’s with steal heels waiting for your balls.”

Without another word she walked off, her heels clicking on the tiled floor, Steve couldn’t help but be impressed, not because of her words, but because he had been threatened by two people Tony knew, and neither of them flinched when it came to what they’ve said to him. He knew he should never cross them, because he liked to stay intact, but also like they have said, to him Tony deserves the world. He wondered if he could get them to go after that guy that Tony had been talking about after leaving the library the other night, but instead decided to let Tony handle how he was going to deal with it. Not because Tony would be vindictive, but because Tony was good at using his words, in his world he could weave a story like no other and because of that he trusted Tony to fight his own battles. If Tony asked for back-up when the time came, Steve would be there waiting for him.

By the end of his shift he had the perfect date planned, there was an old diner in his hometown that had the best burgers, it was an all-night diner with those red booths that you only see on TV shows. If what Jan had told him was right, then Tony would probably love it, Steve wasn’t 100% sure, but he wanted to try. He also asked his brother to check if his tent was around, he wanted to spend the night with Tony under the stars, even though it would be freezing, but a nice fire would help, and he knew the best place to go.

“You can’t go camping in this weather,” Peter said over the phone, his voice muffled as Harley tried to take the phone from him. “Damn it Harley, let me talk...” Peter said before his voice came back on the phone. “Steve it’s cold outside, your balls would shrivel up and fall off.”

“Peter, I’m not going to die, I’m going to camp in the back yard near the fire pit,”’ Steve said as he drove towards campus. He wanted to see Tony and ask him if the plan would be alright, but mostly he just wanted to see Tony. They were in the honeymoon phase, and he liked it because it gave him an excuse to just hear Tony talk about whatever it was that he had on his mind, and if Steve couldn’t keep up, well it didn’t really matter as long as Tony was happy.

“Oh, well I guess we’re going to have to clean it,” Peter said though Steve could hear the guilt in his brother’s voice.

“What did you guys do?”

“It wasn’t my fault, it was Harley, he wanted to know if we could make a rocket, and well.... the first two attempts ended in failure, but mostly in us burning something really badly in the pit and dad yelled at us.”

“He said we were being reckless,” Harley said in the background.

“Yeah well it would have been fine if we had a longer ignition line running farther from the fence,” Peter called out in his defense.

“Yeah well, we were grounded for a month because of it… remember, we’re grounded until Christmas, which sucks because we’re not even allowed to go to the dance,” Harley said his voice close enough to hear his brothers bickering. The phone dropped onto the floor as Harley and Peter went at it, it was funny to listen to them fight like that, because he had never had that chance, he was in the middle, with Hank and Bruce being closer in age they were thick as thieves, but Steve was the baby until Peter came and then Harley.

“Hello,” his mother’s voice came over the phone. “Boys stop fighting already and go do your homework.”

“Hi mom,” he said smiling to himself. He really loved his crazy family, “I was asking Peter to check the camping equipment for me but then he started fighting with Harley.”

“Oh, well your dad cleaned it all up, it’s in the mud room, because it was getting in the way, especially since he’s sad that his den is being turned into a nursey, something about having too many kids.”

“He loves us,” Steve said in his own defense, though it was true, even though the house was always full, and they didn’t have enough rooms for all of them to live in, his father loved them all. They could have gotten a bigger house at any point in time, but Steve understood why it was that his parents loved their house. It was the first thing that they were able to buy for their family, the schools were great, and it had a huge yard for them to play.

“He does, we set up the basement as his studio, but we had to clean up a lot, so the camping stuff is in the mud room for now, why do you ask, because Steven Grant Rogers, you know it’s too cold to go camping right now.”

“Ma, I’m going to camp in the backyard near the pit, I want to bring someone over to meet you, but I also want to do something fun together, so I figured two birds and all.”

“Oh... okay, and if you get cold you and your guest can sleep inside,” she said before he could hear her muffled voice, which meant she covered the receiver on the phone. “Anyway, is this person special to you or is it one of your rowdy baseball buddies?”

“He’s special,” Tony really was special to Steve in so many ways.

“My baby boy is in love,” she said as he heard someone huff in laughter in the background, which meant that his father was nearby. “Stop that Joe, let him have this.”

“What’s dad saying now?”

“He better not be like that Barnes boy,” his father’s voice came over the phone, he knew that his parents still held some kind of resentment towards Bucky after the break-up, but Steve thought that they were getting better at hiding it from him. “I can’t handle another one like him, Sam is more tolerable than Bucky is.”

“Joe, seriously,” his mother said, and he knew it was because of everything that had happened.

“I don’t want you guys to hate Bucky, we were friends before we dated and we’re friends now, it’s not going to stop, we just weren’t right for each other.”

“I know, your dad is just a little over protective of his boys, hell Bruce called earlier saying something about his boyfriend, who we still haven’t met, and Hank was dating some girl but that didn’t work out so much for him. Peter is talking to some girl named Michelle, and Harley... well I don’t know if Harley likes anyone at all.”

“Do you make it a habit to know everyone that your boys are dating?” Steve could hear his father questioning his mother, Steve of all people knew that his mother just wanted them all to be happy, but she also wanted to get to know people outside of her nursing job.

“I’m a mother Joe, I need to know so that my boys would be protected, if I left it up to you, they’d run wild like some crazy beasts of the wilder woods or something.”

“Like dad would be any better once the girls are born,” Steve added, knowing that most likely his father would become an overprotective papa bear.

“See, even Steve understands.”

“Okay,” Steve said sighing as he pulled into the parking lot, “I’ll be there this weekend, Friday night actually, just make sure that the camping stuff is there and not ripped, I don’t know what Harley and Peter get at when no one is looking, but it would be nice to be able to not freeze to death, I’ll see you then,” he hung up before his parents could get into it again, they were the best he could have asked for, but once they started they wouldn’t stop talking.

Jumping out of his car, just because he was excited, he walked up to the dorm, not really sure if Tony would be there, or Bucky for that matter, he had literally just drove there without knowing if anyone was home. He walked up the steps to the dorm, hoping that someone would be there only to see Tony trying, and failing to open his door.

“Need help,” Steve asked as he walked towards the genius, who looked like he hadn’t slept this whole time, which worried Steve a little.

“Steve, I can’t see the key hole,” Tony said, and Steve couldn’t help but laugh, a sleepy Tony was one of his favorite things. “Not... funny.”

“Have you slept at all since we saw each other on Monday?”

“Not... really, I’ve been working on everything all at once, and I finished... well most of it, I’m still trying to get my fiction writing assignment done, but I still can’t get over what Ty did, so I get an... angy...angry,” Tony was tired and Steve knew this, especially if Tony couldn’t say a single word.

“Come on,” Steve said opening the door, let's get you to bed, maybe some sleep will help you, plus I want to tell you about our date tomorrow.”

“We’re going out tomorrow?” he said before a yawn took over, he was slightly tilted as Steve pushed him through the door.

“Yes, it’s very low maintenance too, so all you would have to do is sit back and relax.”

Tony hummed as Steve led him to the bed, slowly making him sit down so that Steve could take off Tony’s shoes and lay him down. Steve couldn’t help but smile when Tony sent him a quick wink before yawning again. It took some work on Steve’s part to help Tony get ready for bed, as the genius was flopped over half asleep already. He quickly took off Tony’s jeans and almost laughed when he saw the Captain America boxers that Tony had on, before tucking him into the bed.

“Don’t leave,” Tony whispered, and it tugged at Steve’s heart especially when Tony reached out for him.

“Okay, but you’re going to have to scoot, I won’t fit if you’re hogging the whole bed, I’m not really a small guy if you remember.”

“Uhhmmm, okay,” Tony said before rolling over, quickly he stripped down to his boxers and his shirt before getting into the bed with Tony, “You smell like coffee.”

“I just got out of work, but we’ll take a nap and then get some food okay,” Steve said, and Tony nodded before snuggling into his chest. Steve hadn’t realized that he was tired until the warmth of Tony against him lulled him to sleep.

It was warm and his pillow was hard, but it felt comforting for some reason and smelled like coffee, so he burrowed himself deeper into the feeling. It felt nice, until the door slammed against the wall and his pillow jumped before falling off the bed with a thump. That was when he knew that it hadn’t been a pillow, but it had been a very real Steve and his hard muscles that Tony had been snuggling into. Tony had almost forgotten that they had climbed into the bed together, he had been so tired that he had gotten into bed without realizing it and fallen asleep, he thought that he had been dreaming the whole thing and that he was still working on his project.

He remembered finishing the last one, he still had his fiction writing assignment, and apparently a date with Steve... or he could have hallucinated that he wasn’t sure. The not sleeping thing was getting out of hand and he knew it, but he wanted to finish everything before finals week, so that he could spend more time with Steve. There was also the fact that he had been working on his AI the whole time as well, because while DUM-E was great, he had just been the one step forward that Tony needed to create JARVIS.

“Damn Stevie, you were never that light of a sleeper,” Tony heard Bucky said but he wanted to roll over and ignore his roommate for once, mainly because he had ruined Tony’s nap.

“What do you want Bucky,” Steve said from the floor, and Tony just wanted to throw a pillow and cry over losing the most perfect nap in the world.

“To come home to my room, you know normal things like that, plus I have a date tonight unlike the two of you who decided that getting together meant napping and not going out.”

“Fuck off Barnes,” Tony said as he took his pillow and chucked it at him roommate.

“Well this one is feisty, or could it be the hours upon hours that he spent working on his projects only to come home and worry about his first date with Stevie over here.”

“Buck, if you don’t stop, I won’t be held accountable for what Tony does to you in your sleep,” Steve said and Tony automatically thought about shaving his roommate’s hair off, so he guessed that Steve would be correct in his assumptions.

“How do you know that he would do anything at all?” Bucky countered dropping his stuff on the floor.

“Because one time when we were kids, Clint poured a bottle of water on him while he was sleeping and the next day he woke up without eyebrows,” Natasha said walking into the room, Tony couldn’t help but smile at the memory, it had been the best revenge, except he had to change the lock on his door and reinforce it for a whole week before their mother put a stop to the war. “I think he had been what eight when that happened?”

“Yeah, and I still have the pictures to remember it by, Clint had to go to Junior Prom like that too,” Tony said with a grin on his face. “I won that war too.”

“Yeah, after mom yelled at the both of you to stop because you broke one of the vases in the hallway, the thing was worth a small fortune.”

Both Steve and Bucky were staring at them, he wasn’t sure why until they started laughing, “What it happens a lot, plus they would never mess with Nat, not after one of Clint’s collectable figures was found dismembered in bed next to him, which one was it.”

“Oh, that limited edition Han Solo one, the one that had been made as mistake,” she said with that evil grin on her face, the one she normally got when she was either planning revenge or remembering what she had done. “Teaches him to do what he did.”

“What did he do?” Bucky was the one who asked, and Tony could see the curiosity on his face.

“We don’t speak of it, it’s only ever known as the darkest day in Clint’s life, he sometimes gets nightmares about it too,” Tony answered knowing that what Clint had done was something that the Stark kids would never forget, but if spoken Natasha would kill them.

“Okay, well I’m going to go get ready, and I’ll be back in a bit, no maiming while I’m gone,” Bucky said before grabbing his stuff and heading to the bathroom.

Just as Tony rolled over to sit up, Nat sat down next to him before Steve could, smiling up at the blonde. “I’ll go get us some food,” Steve said before leaning down and kissing Tony on his head, before putting on his pants, which only left him blushing as Steve left the room. He hadn’t realized that Steve had been in his boxers, and when he pulled up his comforter, he saw that he was also in his boxers… the Captain America ones. Which was completely embarrassing, especially since he was sure that they weren’t made anymore.

It was quiet for five seconds after the door closed before Natasha turned to him, “So, this is interesting, you know, me dating your roommate who also happens to be your boyfriend’s best friend slash ex.”

“It’s not weird you know,” Tony said knowing that she was ramping up to something.

“Not at all, but I do want to know if you’re going to be okay with him, I mean I saw what happened the other day, misunderstanding or not.”

He thought about it for a moment before turning towards her. “I’ll be fine, there’s a lot of things that could have happened, but I trust Steve, and if you didn’t maim him after I left then that night, then means that he’s telling the truth.”

“Did you notice that it was Sharon Carter he had been with?”

“Not at that moment, she had been covered, but I found out afterwards, had you noticed?”

“Not at first, but mainly because I was worried about you, so I got a bit of tunnel vision, you know how protective I am of you, since you’re the baby.”

“Only by a couple of months Nat.”

“Yeah but I saw how your last relationship went, I could kill that evil wretch, but I let it go,” she said, and Tony knew how protective Natasha was of him, no one messed with her baby brother, no matter how many months apart in age they were. “I just want you to be happy.”

“I am actually, it’s new but I know that he won’t hurt me,” Tony said, and he knew in his heart that it was true. “And before you ask why I’m so sure of this, well look at Bucky, who even after their break-up Steve would still want to be friends with him.”

“And it’s a good thing that they broke up because James is mine now and I’m not going to give him up,” she smiled, and Tony knew from that one smile that his sister was happy. It was something that they both wished for, even as Stark kids, because there would always be someone out there who would want to take advantage of them. They just needed to find the ones who would care for them and like them for who they are and not their family name.

They sat back on his bed, leaning against the wall, just sitting there in the quiet, it was weird for him to be able to sit still for even a moment, but with Natasha they would always have these moments together. She used those moments to get his mind to calm down mostly, especially on days when he was running on too little sleep, when the equations in his head wouldn’t stop coming and kept him up at all hours of the night. That’s how he started writing, when they were sitting around talking about what it would have been like to fight alongside Captain America.

“What’s on your mind,” she said, and he knew that it had everything to do with the fact that he had been sleeping and looked near death with exhaustion. This time it wasn’t the equations running through his head, but the story that he couldn’t write. He did every other project but that one, because he wasn’t sure of whether it would be good enough. Ty had really done a number on him, hell the failure from Professor Coulson had rattled him as well.

“I can’t write my story for class,” he said knowing it was the hardest thing in the world for him to say out loud. Numbers were easy, but he couldn’t find his place with his words, and they had been his solace in the hardest of times. “I’ve tried but I can’t.”

“Do you know why?”

“Well... there are somethings that happened over the last few weeks, other than that who misunderstanding with Steve, and it just feels like writing isn’t in my blood after all.”

The bed shook as she pulled away from the wall and turned to him, her face was angry because Natasha always knew when something was wrong, even when they hadn’t really hung out with one another for weeks, “Who do I have to kill,” she said and he knew that she would do it if he was hurt too badly.

“No one,” he answered but he knew that she knew that he was lying, especially when she was staring at him the way she was at that moment. “Fine, the first thing was that one of my stories for class wasn’t a hit with the professor, because I was dumb enough to give him one of my own fanfics, and then.... well my writing partner turned out to be an ass who made me do most of the work and then decided he was going to hand it in as his final project without giving me credit for the work.”

“He deserves to die then,” she said and while Tony would like for it to happen, murder wasn’t something that they could really get away with. But she needed to know the whole story, she needed to know the extent of what happened, because in the end she had always been the one that had stayed by him. His brothers were already out of the house by the time they reached High School, but Natasha had been the one to console him during his break-ups, she had been the one to dance with him in their living room when no one was watching. She was his sister and his best friend all rolled into one person.

“That’s not the worse part, his father told him to make friends with the Stark kid who was going to school here, I bet he didn’t know that the two of us were here,” Tony said knowing that because of that Natasha would already planning the guy’s demise. “His father got a deal with S.I. because of this, and I hadn’t known about any of it. The whole semester he used me without me knowing and I guess that’s what threw me.”

“Wait, the only deal I’ve heard about recently was with Viastone, I heard mom on the phone with Thor, they were talking about the whole thing, mainly because Thor tells mom everything, and he doesn’t like the deal, they’ve been in talks for a while now, dad wants it to go through but Thor says that the whole thing doesn’t feel right.”

“I guess that’s the one.”

“Well that guy is a major dirtbag if his father told him to use you to get that deal to happen, mainly because they would have just used your name and then say something about how you love the idea even if you’ve never heard about it.”

“We can find out more at the end of the semester when we get home,” Tony said not wanting to think about the whole thing, he had enough problems as it was.

“Okay, but I want you to work on that story Tony, you’re a good writer and I don’t want someone else dictating whether you could or couldn’t be a writer period,” she said hugging him, she was comforting him, but he could also feel just how tense she was after their talk.

“But what would I write about that’s not Captain America related?” he asked while pulling away, he was stressed about it, he knew this, but he also wanted to make her proud.

“I don’t know, maybe use something that’s already happened, think about how we were just talking about Clint, maybe there’s something from when we were kids that could inspire you.”

He hadn’t thought of it that way, “Maybe that’s a way to look at it,” he told her thinking of all of their adventures when they were little. “I guess I’ll have another sleepless night.”

“At least sleep you big dumbo,” she pushed him down, but all he could do was smile, because while their brothers had grown up together throughout the years, Natasha had always been the one to look out for him when he was at his wits end. She was the only one in the family who knew just the lengths it took to keep him from going too overboard on his projects.

“I will, after I’m done, I promise,” he said to her.

Bucky came back, freshly showered and dressed, before dragging Natasha out the door, he was taking her to dinner, nothing fancy, which she liked. “It’s nice to not have to worry about a guy trying to impress me too much,” she told him as they made their way out the door. “I’ll see you later,” she called out as Bucky took her outside.

“Later Punk,” Bucky called just as the door closed behind the couple.

Steve hadn’t come back right away, and Tony had been glad for the few minutes he had to himself, mainly because a story was already brewing in his mind. He opened his laptop and started typing away, the story was about the first time him and Natasha had a recital together, it happened on the same day he learned that Nat, as well as their brothers, were all adopted, it was the day he learned that sometimes a family could be stitched together, they didn’t have to be born into it either. He changed as much as he could about his own life, not wanting people to know too much about who he was or about his sister.

By the time Steve had come back, Chinese food in hand, Tony had typed up the whole story, like he had been possessed by something telling him to finish, and closed it up his computer. When he looked at the clock, he realized that Steve had been gone for over an hour.

“Did you go to China for that?” Tony asked him as Steve settled in beside him, taking out containers of food.

“No, it’s just that the only really good Chinese place is on the other side of town, and there was a huge line tonight,” Steve said to him before kissing Tony on the cheek. “Only the best for you.”

“Aww... you’re trying to butter me up, aren’t you?”

“Not really, but I can tell just how tired you are, so I figured you can eat, and then get cleaned up, and we can go back to sleep.”

“I see, an ulterior motive, you want to fatten my up, I see how this is mister I have a six pack even though I’m an art major.”

“Nice to know that you understand my plans,” Steve smiled at him, and Tony couldn’t be happier with how they were with one another.

Tony dug into his food, realizing that this was the first time in days that he was eating a proper meal and not a random granola bar he had stashed in his bag. “Do you want to tell me the plan for tomorrow?”

He couldn’t help but beam at the smile that Steve gave him, “It’s a surprise,” Steve told him, “I hope you finished everything you needed to finish for your classes, I don’t want to keep you from your work.”

“I’ll finish the last of it in the morning,” Tony answered, because all he needed to do was clean up the story a little bit, nothing more. “Everything else I finished already,” he actually finished weeks ago, but the other night after his talk with Steve, he decided to scrap his project and start new, which was dumb, because the first project was already done, but he really just wanted to invent something.

The rest of the night they watched movies, well at least Tony was sure that Steve had watched something, because after the food and then the shower, Tony had been so tired that he had passed out on the bed in Steve’s arms.


	10. Chapter 10

Tony spent most of the morning finishing his story after Steve had gone off to work after making sure that Tony had gotten breakfast before promising to pick him up that afternoon. Well it was more like Steve pulling him towards the dining hall, getting coffee into his system just to wake him up. It was strange to think that they were together, stranger now because they’re having their first official date. But there was that goofy grin on Steve’s face once Tony was fully awake that reminded him that this was real, and he was all for this if that’s what it took to have Steve look at him like that.

“Just make sure you dress warm,” Steve told him before giving him a quick kiss as he walked out of the dorm.

Honestly Tony didn’t know what was going to happen, but he did send his story off to his professor. He named it The Young Dancer, it’s the best parts of his childhood, the ones where him and Nat grew up together, before the real pressure had set in. He changed a lot of the story, mainly because it was based on his life, but it’s a good piece. One that hadn’t been touched by Ty. It was mostly about that one night that Natasha had taught him to dance when they were kids, Tony remembered it because his father had yelled at him for trying to replicate Nat’s dance moves a few days earlier. It had been a magical night, and one that he didn’t share with anyone but her, but it was also a story that he had wanted to tell. He sent it to Natasha once it was done, and he got a smiley face back afterwards, she was his number one cheerleader, even if they haven’t hung out together much in the last few months.

By the time Steve had come to pick him up, he was nervous, dressed in Rhodey’s M.I.T. sweatshirt, and his jeans and converse, he looked like the world had swallowed him whole, except Steve was looking at him with a weird look.

“What, this is the warmest sweater I have,” Tony said in his own defense. “You said to dress warm.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know... I feel a little jealous,” Steve told him, his face flushed with hints of pink, it was cute, and Tony’s heart did a little dance.

“Steve it’s only Rhodey’s sweater nothing more.”

“I know, but why can’t it be mine,” he answered revealing to Tony the real problem, well not problem, but maybe it was something he could figure out a name for later.

“You want me to wear your stuff... is this a kink or something? Because I haven’t taken anything from you at all, I tend to steal Rhodey’s sweaters all of the time because they’re huge he’s like almost as tall as you and is in his school’s ROTC but he’s going into the air force so he’s huge compared to me,” Tony told him, it was the honest truth, because Tony was a little on the shorter side, and all of his friends had always been taller, he always stole their sweaters. He had poor blood circulation at times and was always cold, plus Rhodey’s sweaters were always longer so Tony used them as blankets.

“Maybe it’s a thing, I don’t know,” Steve said rubbing his face before running his hands through his hair, and before Tony could say anything, Steve pulled out a sweater with the school’s team name on the front, and Steve’s last name and his number on the back. “So... maybe.”

Tony couldn’t help the smile on his face, he had always had girlfriends, even though he had known that he was bisexual since he was eight, he had had a crush on Rhodey before he thought better of it and just wanted to be friends, and they were better as friends than anything more, but this was the first time he was truly surprised at how much Steve being jealous over a sweater turned him on. It was stupid, and he really liked it, he took off Rhodey’s sweater and changed it for Steve’s, it was dark blue, with white lettering, but the red and white stripes on the sleeves made it all the better. It made it look like Captain America’s sweater, and Steve Rogers no matter how much he tried to deny it, was Captain America in a lot of ways.

When Steve smiled at him after he put it on Tony felt his heart speed up a bit, you see it’s one thing to see Steve get jealous about something, and another thing to have him give Tony the full wattage of his smile, “You really shouldn’t have been jealous over that you know,” Tony said even though it was doing things to him at the moment.

Steve’s face was flushed, and Tony just wanted to kiss him because god could Steve get any hotter from being embarrassed, “I know,” Steve said before bending down and kissing Tony on the lips before Tony could kiss Steve himself. “I guess, I just want people to know that we’re together.”

“Trust me Steve they know, and if they don’t well it doesn’t really matter, all that matters is you and me know,” Tony said before walking out of his room and seeing someone in a dark corner, it didn’t take long for Tony to realize that it was Ty, he was talking to someone in the dorm, but he ignored the guy and walked to Steve’s car before Ty could stop them and ruin their night.

There was no getting over what Ty had done, and hopefully this date, and the whole weekend could erase it for good, because Tony didn’t want to deal with it if they ended up in the same class next year, they still had one more class with Professor Coulson before they left for break, since they didn’t have a final the class was mostly for their professor to give them his feedback on their stories. This was the end of the semester, and he hoped that whatever deal Ty and his father had been trying to accomplish would die a horrible death. Until the time came, Tony was content with being with Steve, and having a little fun on their date.

“Was he the reason you were acting like that,” Tony said pointing Ty out, who started walking further down the hall, and out of sight.

“Maybe, I mean I did think for a while that the two of you had a thing for one another,” Steve said starting the car and driving off. “I wasn’t sure why he showed up all of a sudden, and the sweater was something that I wanted to give to you, but later, I hadn’t known that you would try and have another one on.”

“Well you said dress warm, what was I supposed to do, but I’m glad... I kind of like the little jealousy thing you had going,” he really was turn on by it, and he shouldn’t be, but it wasn’t like Steve was aggressive, it was more about having Tony in Steve’s clothes, which was cute and hot at the same time. “You’re adorable Steve Rogers,” Tony said just as Steve started the car, before Steve had the chance to shift into drive Tony pulled him into a kiss.

“Well this date is going a lot better than I had planned,” Steve smiled into the kiss. “Now let's go get dinner.”

They drove for what felt like an eternity, Tony wasn’t sure that they were in the same town as the school anymore, “I’m not being kidnapped am I?”

“Not really,” Steve said as the lights from what looked like a boxcar diner lit up the road in front of them. “I just wanted to take you somewhere I really liked going growing up.”

“Wait, are we in your hometown?” Tony asked, looking around for signs of what it was like to grow up in Steve’s life, but all he saw were trees and the diner, further up he could see Main Street USA type of shops, but the street didn’t stretch that far.

“Yeah, I figured we could have dinner, and afterwards we could go camping and look at the stars.”

“Steve, it’s freaking freezing outside we would die if we went camping tonight,” it really was, in the city it would be warmer than where they were, it always got colder the further upstate you went.

“Yeah and,” Steve said, and he knew that the guy was up to something. “Don’t worry, I planned for everything.”

“Liar, you planned for me to be as close as possible to you and you know it,” Tony answered not missing the smirk on Steve’s face.

“There’s that too,” Steve said as he parked at the diner. “The town is small, but we’re not too far from Main Street, this is just the best diner in my little corner of the world.”

“Do they have something in the food that I don’t know about?”

“Nope just burgers and fries, and the best milkshake in the world.”

“Oh, the whole world, well I’ll be the judge of that,” Tony said as Steve got out of the car and walked over to Tony’s side to let him out, the whole gentleman thing was really doing it for him tonight. The sweater, the dinner, even the thought of sitting with him under the stars, it was nice to think that Steve had put this much thought into their first real date. He wondered what he should do for their second, the only thing he could think of was actually showing Steve DUM-E which he knew Steve would like. Maybe a picnic, though he wasn’t the best cook in the world, but he did know how to cook simple things, and some of his mother’s favorite recipes as well.

Steve knew that Tony was distracted, from the moment he helped Tony out of the car, they hadn’t even taken a step forward, and he was already thinking that maybe this was too simple of a date for Tony. There was something to be said about dating someone who came from money, maybe Tony thought that they would go to a restaurant or something fancy.

“What’s on your mind?” Steve said trying to stop the train of thought going through his mind right at that moment. He didn’t want to live through another misunderstanding like the one they had had the week before.

“Oh, well... our next date, since you planned all of this,” Tony said to him and Steve could see the slight shyness in Tony’s eyes. It made his heart speed up a little thinking that Tony actually liked the idea of the date Steve had planned.

“It’s not too simple is it?” he asked still a little wary about what he put together, but he knew that Tony liked it just from the way he was looking around.

“No in a million years,” Tony smiled at him and it warmed him from the inside out to think that this was something he looked forward too. “Have I ever told you about my obsession with cheeseburgers?”

“Not really, but I mean... well we only ever really talk about other things, not really food, but it’s one of the things that I would like to understand better about you.”

“Things like favorite movies and favorite colors and all of that?”

“Yeah normal couple things, we’re still just starting out, I mean I used my lack of math skills just to spend time with you,” Steve admitted, it was the truth, he wouldn’t have passed the class if it hadn’t been for Tony, but that was just the icing on the cake. He really just wanted to spend some time with him.

Before they could keep talking, and probably freeze to death where they stood, Steve took Tony’s hand and walked him into the diner. When he had first come out to his parents as bisexual, his parents worried that the town wouldn’t approve of him in any way, when he had started dating Bucky, the woman who owned the diner had welcomed them like they were her own. Steve had later found out that she was married to one of the school teachers, but they had kept it secret for a long time at least before marriage was legal, but at the time she had found that she needed to embrace the kids who were afraid of coming out. Now the diner had a Pride flag hanging on its walls, and pictures of couples all over, though his and Bucky’s picture was on the wall, the break-up had been something that she had helped Steve through. He owed her a lot, and he couldn’t pay her back enough for being that one person who let him be who he wanted to be without any questions.

The waitress sat them in a corner booth all the way in the back, but Steve liked watching Tony take the whole place in, his eyes lighting up as he saw the wall of pictures with the Pride flag right in the middle.

“Is your picture up there?” Tony asked and Steve could see that he was itching to get up, Tony was never one to sit still for very long.

“Yeah, she took it when Bucky and I were together,” he said feeling a little embarrassed about it. “I was hoping that she would take our picture and put it up there too.”

It felt weird, bringing Tony somewhere that him and Bucky had always gone, but he was trying to replace the bad memories with something good. Yes, him and Tony hadn’t known one another for long, have dated for even less time, but there was something there, something that he wanted to hold on to, something special. It was different then his relationship with Bucky, and he saw that now, even as his friendship with Bucky returned to what it had been. They had just been two small town kids, nothing more, but now that they’ve grown up a little, he realized that it would have never lasted. It wasn’t like his parents who had known from day one that they would be together forever, Steve hadn’t had that with Bucky, but for some reason in his heart he had felt that with Tony, and he wanted to cherish it.

“I brought you here because this was the first place that I wanted to take you, I wanted to share with you a piece of who I am,” Steve told Tony, honesty was the best policy in his mind. “This date, well it starts here because it’s somewhere I always went growing up, and I just wanted to show you these parts of myself.”

“That’s.... it’s very romantic of you to put it that way,” Tony told him. “I never had someone so willing to share themselves like that. Everything I’ve known growing up, well it was about being the best at everything, I’m a Stark, and we Stark kids have to change the world. This is the first time where I can just be Tony, not just with school, you’ve given me that too.”

“Well I’m glad that’s something that I could give you,” and it was something he was glad to have been there for.

They did get that picture on the wall, somewhere between eating and sharing their basket of fries, the waitress had taken their picture and posted on the wall, even giving them a copy. Steve hadn’t even seen the flash go off, but it had happened when Tony had been eating a fry and Steve bit off the other end, both of them were smiling while it happened, even if they hadn’t seen the picture get taken.

“This is nice,” Tony said looking at the picture. “I want to frame it and put it on my wall.”

“That’s good because it’s yours,” Steve said, he didn’t need the picture as long as he had Tony with him, he could draw those moments out. “Come on, time to go camping.”

“You were serious about that, we’re actually going camping,” Tony said a horrified expression on his face. “Steve, it’s cold out right now... it’s literally freezing outside.”

“Don’t worry too much, I’ve got this covered,” he said dragging Tony to the car.

“But we’ll die in this kind of cold.”

“No, we won’t, come on,” he couldn’t help but smile as he got Tony into the car. Rushing off to the other side as fast as he could. “You see, well... the second part of this date is that I want to take you to my house.”

“As in your childhood home, but I wasn’t supposed to meet your parents until tomorrow, you promised, I had flowers to buy and stuff like that.”

“Tony, my parents don’t need things like that.”

“But it’s nice to give something to your boyfriend’s parents,” Tony looked around when they drove down Main Street. “At least a flower shop, please, I want to make a good impression.”

Steve couldn’t help but sigh, he was weak when it came to Tony, “Fine, we’ll go to Mr. Fury's flower shop.”

“Fury, like the character from your dad’s comics?”

“Yeah, he was in the army with my dad a long time ago, they’ve been friends for years,” Steve said smiling. It was one thing for Tony to know about Captain America, it was another to see Tony’s face when he realized just how many of the people in the comics were real people.

“Does your dad put everyone he knows into his panels?”

“Just close friends, and his kid’s friends, hence Bucky is the Winter Soldier, and my brothers all have characters in the story.”

“This is wild,” Tony said as they pulled up into Mr. Fury’s flower shop. He could see Ms. Hill at the counter talking to someone, so they were lucky that the place was still open.

They were in and out of the flower shop, he knew that Tony wanted to ask a million questions, like whether Mr. Fury looked like his comic book counterpart, but since Mr. Fury was out of the shop at the moment, Steve was glad to be able to skip that question. Especially if it got around to why Fury had an eye patch, and how did a flower shop owner become the head of a super-secret organization.

Tony had gotten the most expensive bouquet of flowers Steve had ever seen, and there was no stopping Tony from buying them. “I want your mom to like me,” Tony said as they walked out.

“Not my dad?”

“Yeah well, I already have a lot to say, but I wouldn’t know what to get your dad, moms are easy, I know because my mom loves getting flowers all of the time, she likes to make things out of them once they dry out and everything.”

“You’re really close to your mother aren’t you,” Steve said, it was nice to see this side of Tony.

“I love my mom, she’s great, yeah she had to raise five kids while my dad worked all of the time, she always made sure that we had her attention, my older brothers were around a lot when I was growing up, dinners and family things, but they always made time for me and Nat, and that’s because of our mom,” Tony said a fond smile on his face as if he were remembering. “She always talked about how she had a huge family growing up, she’s Italian, and she missed that, she was an only child, with a lot of aunts and uncles, a million cousins, but when her parents moved to the states, they came over without all of that.”

“What does your mom do now that you and Natasha are in college?”

“Well that’s the funny thing, she has a part in the company too, she’s a Stark after all, even through marriage, she runs the foundations and helps out legal, she has a law degree, but she likes doing charity work, so dad let her create the Maria Stark Foundation.”

“I feel like my family does nothing compared to yours.”

“Not really, I mean your dad inspires kids every day, your mom probably does her own thing too, we’re the same, the only difference is that my last name means something to the world at large, I don’t really care about that,” he said and Steve understood what Tony was saying, they could be the same and different at the same time. “What does your mom do anyway?”

“She’s a nurse,” he said, very proud of the work she’s done. “Well right now she’s not working because of the babies, but she’ll probably go back once the girls are born. She really loves her job.”

“Which means she saves lives, and that’s something important, plus if it weren’t for her you wouldn’t be here, and I know you’re a great person, so that means she gave you the best parts of herself.”

There was something about hearing Tony say things like that that made Steve happy, mainly because Steve never thought about his parents that way. When you’re a child you always just see them as parents, people you look up to until the next person comes along that catches your interest. Children have short attention spans when it comes to certain things, but their parents are a constant in their lives. Steve wondered when he stopped seeing his parents as heroes, and just saw them as mom and dad.

Pulling up to his childhood home, made him more nervous, mainly because he hasn’t introduced his parents to anyone that he’s been interested in, not since Bucky and him had broken up. There hadn’t really been anyone that had stuck, not like Tony who had just stormed into his life and changed everything he ever knew. All it took was one look at Tony’s wall, seeing Iron Man and Captain America together, and everything changed from that moment. Tony made his heart race, he talked a mile a minute sometimes, Steve couldn’t understand half of what he was saying but it didn’t matter to him. He liked hearing Tony talk about things that he was passionate about, it’s good to see that kind of fire in a person.

“I hope they like me,” Tony said as he got out of the car, he was practically bouncing up and down, the flowers in hand, his eyes looking between Steve and the house.

“They will love you Tony,” Steve said knowing that it would be true, his father always wanted someone to talk to about the comics, someone that wasn’t his editors, anyone at the publisher, or even everyone who knows him personally. His mother would just be happy that Steve had found someone to care about. “Come on,” he took Tony’s hand in his and walked them to the door.

It opened before he even got his keys out as two teenagers rushed out of the house tackling Steve and nearly toppling Tony over the porch steps. The two of them started talking a mile a minute and Steve couldn’t really keep up with them.

“Stop,” he said before pulling his brothers apart. “You can tell me about this later, for now I just have someone I want to introduce to you guys.”

“Someone, who,” Harley said before his eyes landed on Tony. “Who’s the shorty?”

Steve couldn’t help but groan, Harley had grown over the years, but he wasn’t at Steve’s six-foot three-inch height, hell he was taller than all of them with the exception of Hank and their father. “Be nice Harley,” Steve said to his brother before turning to Peter and seeing his eyes wide open.

“You’re Tony Stark,” Peter said before launching into something about artificial intelligence, that Steve couldn’t keep up with. Peter was smart, he created a spider-bot that works from some kind of AI, but he was struggling with it. Tony was the best person to talk about it with, but Steve was still trying to get past his brothers at the moment, and failing. Though how Peter knew about Tony’s work in artificial intelligence was beyond Steve.

“Okay, stop,” Tony said to Peter before ripping off a piece of paper from the flowers and writing down a complicated code of some kind before handing it off to Peter. “Try that and then we’ll talk.”

“Later,” Steve said not wanting his date to fall apart just because Tony wanted to invent something. “I’m going to introduce him to Mom and Dad and then we’re going to the yard and that’s it.”

“Will you guys be here all night?” Peter asked, while Harley rolled his eyes.

“Yes Pete, we will be, just let me get through this first, and you guys can join us in the back yard later,” Steve answered, hopefully Tony wouldn’t mind the extra guests, but when he looked over at his boyfriend... was he Tony’s boyfriend... he wasn’t sure about the whole thing since they hadn’t really talked about it, but he hoped that this was something Tony had thought about? There would be time to answer all of that later on.

Pushing them all into the house, before shoving his brothers into the living room, and taking Tony to the one place he was sure his mother was, in the den. His father worked in the basement of the house, his mother on the other hand had created a little library in the den for the babies and usually sat in there when the house was too much. She was the mother of five boys, and sometimes it gets to be too much even for her.

“Mom,” he called out only to see her head pop out of the den, a smile on her face as she walked out with her hand on her belly, his father not far behind. Steve knew it was because he was worried, but his mother would always do what she wanted as long as her boys were all taken care of.

“There’s my boy,” she said with a smile before smacking her husband’s hands away. “Damn it, Joe I can walk you know, the doctor said it was alright.”

“Sorry, but the doctor also said that you shouldn’t be on your feet for long,” his father said following her around, as she rubbed her belly.

“Joseph Rogers, so help me I will throw something at you if you don’t stop hovering, I want to meet Steve’s boyfriend and you’re not going to stop me from doing that, I’ve been sitting around all day, I can walk for a little while.”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh, seeing the hopeless look on his father’s face as he trailed behind his mother. “No laughing Steve, please, this is very stressful,” his father said to him.

“You think,” his mother called out. “You try carrying around two watermelons, and then squeezing them out of your body through a hole smaller than my fist, forget it, there’s no use in explaining this… anyway, where’s this boy?”

There was something funny about hearing Steve’s parents' bicker, mainly because his parents never argued or did anything like that around them, though his father giving his mother puppy eyes had been enough for Tony to ignore them most days. It’s sweet when your parents still loved and cared for one another but sickening to walk in on them doing things that shouldn’t be seen by their own kids. He was nervous, which was normal... it was normal right... oh geez he wasn’t sure, he hoped that Steve’s mother liked the flowers.

“Mom, Dad,” Steve said bringing Tony back to what was in front of him. “This is Tony, my boyfriend,” hearing Steve say that one word gave Tony hope for everything he could ever want. It was sweet and seeing Steve blush made the whole thing worth it.

“Hi,” Tony said, and if his voice squeaked just a little it didn’t matter, this was real, he was meeting Steve’s parents. His last relationship was all family and business, and his parents already knew the people, sometimes it felt like his parents were trying to socialize him, but then it almost always backfires, so this was new.

“Oh, wow are those flowers for me,” Steve’s mother said, and all Tony could really do was nod at the very pregnant woman. “You shouldn’t have, but they’ve very lovely, if only my husband could take a cue from you and get me something nice every once and a while.”

“Really Sarah, I’ve gotten you flowers before, and you know how much I love you,” Steve’s father said in his own defense. “See this is what happens when you bring people to this house, I get all the evil stares about how I don’t pamper my wife enough.”

“Dad, Mom’s just messing with you,” One of Steve’s younger brothers called out from behind them. He wasn’t sure which one, his nerves were getting the better of him at the moment so he couldn’t remember who was who.

“Yeah, whatever,” Steve’s father said before kissing his wife and ushering her towards the kitchen. “Come on Steve, let's make some drinks and you can both tell me and your mother about how you two met.”

That was how Tony met Steve’s parents, no questions about his family or who he really was, just Steve’s parents’ playful bickering, his brothers hovering, Peter being the only one really interested in Tony’s projects, but only because he was as smart as Tony was, Harley snickering, and Steve, poor Steve, just looked at them with a fond exasperated look on his face. This was a family that was so different from his own, but they had welcomed him into it no questions asked, all because Steve had brought him to the house.

Now they were alone in the backyard, a tent set up, and a fire going so that they would be warm, the fire pit was actually at the other end of the very huge yard, so they weren’t too close to the house, which meant that they wouldn’t burn the place down if they fell asleep at any point, which was nice. Out there it almost felt like they were alone, even when Peter and Harley tried to go out and sit with them, only to be dragged back into the house by their father, because apparently the two had been grounded and needed to finish their homework before they were going to be allowed anywhere near the tent.

“So... those were your parents,” Tony said as Steve sat down and drew him closer, Tony’s back to Steve’s front, it was nice and very warm. There was something about having Steve hold onto him that made him happy, now he understood what if felt like to actually fall for someone without the extra baggage of him being a Stark kid.

“They’re too much sometimes,” Steve said to him as he wrapped his arms tighter around Tony, honestly, it’s Steve’s fault if he never wanted to get up from that position ever again.

“No, not really, it’s nice that they’re still all lovey dovey, my parents are only like that when they want to embarrass us, or when they’re alone, it’s not something they do when they’re in public, I never understood why but I’m sure that it has everything to do with this image that they want to project.”

“If they still love each other then it’s good for them, maybe it’s just that they want to keep that part of themselves private, considering how much press your family gets it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Tony hadn’t ever really thought of that, but what child thinks of their parents in that way either, they’re just there for you, they protect you, they work and annoy, he guess that in the end all of that hard work they’ve done over the years was to protect him and his siblings, but also to keep them safe. After Tony had been kidnapped, his parents had just fussed over him, his father paid more attention to him, even when he was critiquing his work, but he hadn’t thought about that being his father’s way of showing love.

It didn’t take long for them to sit there in silence, just watching the stars in the sky, Tony often wondered what it would be like to see them up close, but he wasn’t going to be an astronaut, he didn’t have it in him to leave his life behind like that. Plus, he wouldn’t have met Steve if he had actually tried, and that on its own was worth it. He wanted to change the world, but on his own merit. Those were things to think about after he from graduated college, in the future, which wasn’t going to happen for a long time. He wanted to cherish what he had before responsibilities plagued him at every turn.

An hour after they gotten there and sat under the stars, Bucky and Natasha came barreling through the backdoor, Steve’s brothers not far behind, while Steve’s father yelled something about letting the riff raff into the house. Tony felt Steve laughing before the sound ever reached his ears, it was like feeling a slow rumble making its way up, and he liked it.

“Crashing our date are we,” Steve said as Bucky settled in next to them, Natasha sitting on his lap. “Don’t you have something better to do?”

“Don’t blame me,” Bucky answered before kissing Natasha on her cheek. “The moment she heard that you,” he pointed at Tony before pointing at Steve, “had met his parents, it was all over, she wanted to meet mine and then we just made our way over here afterwards.”

“What, it’s not fair if Tony got to meet the parents, and they’ve been together for a week, while we’ve been dating for over a month and I haven’t met anyone,” Natasha said to Bucky pushing him back with her body.

“She would kill you too,” Tony said, and honestly it was the best date he could have ever hoped for.

“What was it like? Meeting Bucky’s parents?” Steve asked and Tony was actually curious about this, because Natasha hadn’t met anyone’s parents before.

“They were nice, they talked about Steve and how they had thought that Bucky had made a mistake giving up a nice boy like Steve,” she said, and Tony wasn’t sure what to think about this development. “But they were happy to meet me, apparently they think my hair is good luck.”

“I think they’re just glad that you’re crazy enough to deal with him,” Steve said his voice had a hint of glee in it. “I love you Buck, but honestly you’re a little nuts.”

“Whatever man, at least they’re not like your parents who I swear hate me with a passion, my parents still like you,” Bucky said throwing a stick at Steve but hitting Tony because of course he was the one sitting in front of Steve.

“Mom and dad don’t hate you,” Harley said, all the while Peter was nodding as he pulled out a giant bag of marshmallows and some how hot dogs on a stick.

“Yeah, they just don’t like that you two dated,” Peter added, and Tony couldn’t help but laugh at how blunt the boys were.

Soon after, Peter started questioning Tony about his projects at school, Steve watching him with a fond expression, and it was nice to talk about his work. Steve had told him that one of his favorite things to do is listen to him talk about his bots, his stories, or just anything that he was working on.

Even with Steve’s brothers talking and roasting marshmallows, their parents joining in, because his mother was hot all of the time, she was carrying twins for heaven’s sake, all the while Steve’s father was wearing more clothes than any of them were, according to Steve his father got cold easily, especially with his mother being pregnant and constantly having the windows wide open. He wondered if his family would be like this when they eventually met Steve and Bucky. It was something to think about, especially when the introductions were happening at a very public party.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Who is the man under the armor?_ **

_By **IamIronMan**_

_In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how he got to this point, buried under who knows what, with Captain America standing over him trying to dig him out. The suit was compromised, he knew this, it was his greatest fear to die trapped inside without anyone knowing who he was._

_“Iron Man,” Cap called out, and he could hear him, but there was too much on top of him, and he would be better off just leaving him there and getting to safety. “IRON MAN,” the yell came, and some of the rubble shifted._

_“Over here,” he called out his voice barely a whisper, the last time this had happened, he had gotten lucky, Cap had gotten him out in time, this time on the other hand, it might actually be the end of him. “Cap.”_

_“I hear you,” Cap called out as more of the rubble shifted, before anything else could happen, he heard the Hulk roar before the heaviest piece had all but flown away. “Shit,” Cap said as he looked at the Iron Man armor._

_He could feel the blood pumping through his leg, there was a metal rod sticking out and if they didn’t take it out and get him to a hospital he would probably die right then and there. Only one hospital in the whole city knew who he was under the suit, he had paid a lot of money and had an iron clad non-disclosure agreement with the staff that normally worked with him. If they said anything, they’d lose their entire livelihoods._

_“We need evac,” Cap yelled out as Black Widow joined him, she was helping Cap look for the releases for the suit, there weren’t many, not when powered down._

_“We need to get him out of the armor and get him to the hospital,” she said as Cap found the one for his leg._

_“We promised him that no one would know who he was, I’m keeping that promise,” Cap said, though this was more Steve talking than their commanding officer. If there was one thing that he would regret was not telling Steve who he was, Iron Man be damned._

_“NYU Medical Center, the one near 34 th,” he called out, and Black Widow looked over at him. “The hospital has a trust worthy staff that knows who I am, it’s the only place we can go.”_

_“The quinjet can get us there,” she said turning to Steve, “All we have to do is keep him stable.”_

_“Steve,” he called out, wanting to tell him the truth but before he could say anything, everything around him went dark._

_When he woke up, it was to the bright lights of a hospital room, the beeping noise reminding him that he made it out alive, the room was familiar, it was the same one they always gave him whenever he had to get patched up. It was one of the only rooms designated for superheroes with secret identities, he had made it possible mostly because he wanted to keep his secret. What was different this time around was the very haggard looking captain right next to him, there was no mask, not anymore, Steve knew everything._

_“Why didn’t you tell me?” Steve asked as Iron Man reached out, but in this moment, he wasn’t the armored Avenger, he was just a regular man on a hospital bed._

_“I had to keep it a secret, I couldn’t jeopardize my company, my workers, or the Avengers,” he said, it was the honest truth, the world couldn’t have him and Iron Man be the same person, but he had to atone for the things he couldn’t prevent, the things that others had done in his name, the countless lives lost. “I need it to stay a secret.”_

_“Is it still going to be a secret?” Steve’s blue eyes looked at him, a worried expression, mixed with the knowledge that he was now one of the few._

_“Maybe not from the Avengers,” he told Steve with a smile. “Maybe it’s time for you all to know who I am, but it can’t leave the mansion.”_

_“I’ll make sure to talk to them,” Steve said a smile on his face. He could feel Steve squeeze his hand in reassurance, and it was something that he truly needed._

* * *

It was the last few days of the fall semester, that one week that ended right in the middle, and Tony wasn’t sure why it was needed other than to torture him with more classes, and even with all of the ups and downs that had happened over the last few months, Tony was absolutely happy. He was sitting in his final fiction writing class, having moved towards the front because he didn’t want to sit next to Ty at all, while their professor talked about all the work that everyone had put into their final stories, never once singling a student out. He talked to the class about some internship opportunities as well as his spring semester teaching assistant position for the next year, as long as they had a good GPA in the major, they were welcomed to apply. Tony wasn’t sure he wanted any of that, he was happy just taking his classes and working on his own projects, so it didn’t really sink in for him. It was a good way to end the year, even when he had thought he wouldn’t finish the class, when he felt down about everything, this was the best way to finish.

“Tony,” Professor Coulson called out as everyone left, for some this was their last class and they could go home, some others still had classes to finish, Tony wasn’t envious of any of them, he had finished everything and then some, all the while going through some really crazy things. His life had been a roller coaster of emotions just the last few weeks alone.

“Yes Professor,” Tony answered picking up his laptop and putting it in his bag, “Is there something you need?”

“Yes, can you stop by my office in a few minutes, there is something I would like to discuss with you about your story.”

Before Tony could say anything, his professor was surrounded by students, and Tony was afraid that he had done something wrong again, but he knew he hadn’t, the story had been perfect. He knew that he shouldn’t freak out, but he was going through a million possible scenarios in his head about what could have gone wrong. If he had been paying attention, he would have noticed that someone was following him to the professor’s office, it wasn’t until Ty’s stupid grin was right in front of him that Tony realized that whatever it was that was going to happen it somehow involved Ty and it wasn’t going to end well.

“So, what does he want to see you about?” Ty asked smiling at him, attempting to get back into Tony’s good graces. “I bet it’s about that internship next spring, or that teaching assistant position that he was talking about.”

Honestly Tony wanted to block him out completely, not listen to anything that Ty had to say especially after what Ty had revealed about his father’s intent on having Ty befriend him and then Ty taking the story that Tony had helped write and turning it in as his own, well Tony wasn’t sure he wanted a friend like that. To his surprise, he saw that Steve had been waiting down the hall for him, and Tony couldn’t have been happier than he was at that moment, because it meant that there was someone there to be a buffer between Tony and Ty. What did surprise him was that Natasha was also there and Bucky was running towards them, almost as if they had planned to meet up and surprise him.

“Hey,” Steve said, that million watt smile that Tony loved so much on his face. “We came to pick you up, Natasha said something about a fitting, even though I told her I could just wear one of my regular suits,” honestly, Tony had forgotten about the whole suit fitting the moment his professor had called him.

“And have my mother kill you on your first meeting, yeah no,” Natasha said, and Tony knew that she was right, but he also knew that Natasha wanted this meeting to go well, it was rare for them to bring anyone home, Jan was an exception because they had grown up together. Boyfriends were something completely different, especially when the meeting would take place during the annual Christmas Gala, in front of everyone they knew and then some.

Bucky was focused on Natasha, but Steve was focused on Tony looking at him like he knew something was wrong, but Tony didn’t want to say what was the problem. Instead of bringing attention to it, Tony just put his arms around Steve’s waist and inhaled his scent. There was nothing better than Steve’s smell, because he smelled like coffee and apple pie, but that was only because he worked at Tony’s favorite place in the world, well actually anywhere that had copious amounts of coffee was Tony’s favorite place in the world, but that particular place had Steve so it was in the number one spot.

“I have to go see my professor in a minute, but when I’m done, we can go, I’m done with my classes anyway,” Tony told them all the while his head was on Steve’s chest, Steve’s hand was going up and down his back comforting him.

“I’ll be here when you’re done,” Steve told him, but when he looked up, he could see Steve looking at where Ty stood, a murderous look in his eyes.

“Don’t worry about him,” Tony told Steve, because it didn’t matter anymore, not what Ty wanted, not what Ty’s father had wanted, they weren’t going to take anything from him, not as long as Steve was there, or Natasha stood nearby, his brothers would probably take the guy down too. He had his family, the one that his parents had stitched together over the years, and now he had Steve and Bucky, and all of the people who have their backs as well. Nothing else mattered.

Tony pulled away once he saw Professor Coulson walking towards them, “I’ll be back in maybe five minutes.”

“I’ll be here waiting,” Steve said kissing him quickly before pulling away.

In Professor Coulson’s office Tony felt weirdly calm, sitting in the leather chair next to Ty, Tony felt confident, even though he wasn’t fond of Ty or what he had done, because it didn’t matter anymore none of it did, he realized that just from standing outside with his boyfriend, his friend and his family.

“I wanted to talk to the both of you about something,” Professor Coulson said, all the while Tony wondered what kind of character the man would be if he were in the Captain America comic books, probably someone who worked closely with Director Fury, it probably had something to do with the whole authority figure thing. “Mr. Stone,” Professor Coulson continued pulling Tony away from his thoughts about the comic books he read. “I read through your story, and it’s a fantastic piece of work,” Ty looked over at Tony with a wide smile on his face, as if he knew this was coming. “But I can’t help but see some similarities to Mr. Stark’s writing, almost as if he worked on this story as well.”

“I mean, he helped me edit but I wrote the story,” Ty said defending his work. “He only did maybe twenty percent of the work.”

“Not from what I read, and I’ve read through both of your stories, there’s too many similarities in your story Mr. Stone, almost as if Mr. Stark did most of the work and you claimed it as your own, I understand that the dialogue is yours, I’ve read enough of your work from earlier in the semester to know how you write dialogue, but a lot if not all of the exposition was not written by you.”

“So, what does this mean, that he’s going to use his family’s name and money to get a better grade just because he helped me, what the hell,” Ty’s voice started getting higher and higher. “Where’s the fairness in that Professor, I’ve worked just as hard as he has, so he can’t take this from me.”

“Mr. Stone, I am not nor have I ever been one to favor someone’s ability to pass my classes based on their family background, Mr. Stark is an exceptional student, as one with multiple majors is, his work is something I enjoy reading, I have also referred this to the dean of the English department, who has read through both stories as well as all of your other work and she has said that there are too many similarities for this to go unnoticed.”

“So, what does this have to do with him if he’s passing the class anyway,” Ty pointed at Tony and he honestly couldn’t figure out why Ty was trying to throw him under a bus, when he had been the one to use Tony to get ahead, not just with his story but with his family’s business.

“I needed Mr. Stark to give permission for you to use this story as your final project, if not you will have to write another story before the official end of the semester,” Professor Coulson told them both, and Tony knew what was happening, it was up to him whether Ty would have to rewrite his whole story or fail the class.

“I don’t want anything to do with this, honestly I washed my hands of this the moment he told me that he was going to use it as his final project,” Tony said standing up not wanting to be in the room any longer. “If you want my opinion, yes, he did write at least half of the story, and you can grade him on that, my half of the story doesn’t need to reflect that grade.”

“Very well Mr. Stark,” Professor Coulson said with a smile. “Please stay for a moment, I need to take Mr. Stone to the Dean’s office so that I may give her the final decision on this matter.”

Ty looked back at Tony with nothing but hate in his eyes, he almost got away with handing in something that Tony had helped him with, but now he wasn’t going to get that chance. This whole semester had been a rollercoaster ride of questions and answers about his life and now it was almost over, and he had never felt more comfortable in his own skin than he did at that moment. It took another twenty minutes before Professor Coulson came back into the room, and honestly Tony had wanted to just leave, but he stayed if only to know what happened.

“I have given our dean your suggestions on the matter of Mr. Stone’s grade, and your thoughts about the whole thing, and she has taken them under consideration.”

“I don’t want to be the reason that Ty fails the class,” Tony said because in all honesty he didn’t want to be the reason anyone went through anything. Yeah Ty used him, but it shouldn’t matter in the end.

“Mr. Stone has had problems before, mostly with certain situations that I am not at liberty to discuss, he was on his last warning, what happened here would have reflected poorly on him if not for what you said. You are a very wise young man Mr. Stark, it reflects itself in your writing and even in your fanfiction,” Professor Coulson said with a smile and Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I am a fan of what you’ve written, even though I don’t allow that kind of work in the classroom, but you have the ability to create something not only from original characters but existing ones, it’s a gift.”

“Thanks,” Tony said grateful to hear it from someone who has had such a huge success with their writing, whether or not Tony was blushing at that moment... well he wasn’t going to discuss it.

“Now, what I wanted to discuss with you was actually something entirely different,” Tony felt happy and confused at the same time, he actually thought that this was it and nothing more. “Your final story is amazing, it has the heart and love of something that is important to you. I would like to have your permission to submit it into next year’s writing awards, they’re handed out before the end of the Spring semester, but the pieces submitted into the grand prize has to have faculty approval before it goes to committee.”

If he was surprised to hear this, he didn’t know it, he wasn’t sure what to say at all, his mind went back to whenever he accomplished something growing up, and when he showed his father, the man would berate him. Complements are something that are rare for him, but this was something beyond that, everyone called him crazy for majoring in writing when his genius levels and his love of mechanics could take him farther. But he honestly just wanted to write and invent, not be one of the faces of Stark Industries, so to have something like this all his own was an amazing achievement.

“I can tell that this is a surprise to you, you probably thought that the reason I called you here was to deal with Mr. Stone’s use of your words, but honestly I hadn’t planned on having you sit in on that discussion until the Dean advised me to get your opinion before moving forward,” Professor Coulson said to him.

“It’s a lot to take in, especially after the past couple of weeks,” the roller coaster of him and Steve getting together, Ty using him not only for help with his story but to also further his family’s standing, being alone on Thanksgiving even though Rhodey, Pepper, and May came to visit.

Honestly, Steve was pacing, he watched as Tony’s professor walked Tiberius to the Dean’s office leaving Tony in the room. He knew that Tony would be nervous, but what they talked about he wouldn’t know outside of what he overheard. Steve was glad that Tiberius would be getting some form of punishment, he knew how much it had hurt Tony to have part of his work stolen, they hadn’t discussed it much but when they had he saw the hurt in Tony’s eyes. He would have punched the guy if it hadn’t been for Tony, not that he didn’t deserve it, especially when Stone’s family used Tony’s connections to S.I. as a way to get in with the company.

When Tony finally came out of the room, Steve was relieved, especially with the smile that Tony had on his face, it was a smile that Steve loved, but that was because he was falling for Tony, and would do almost anything to keep that smile on his face.

“Thank you, Professor Coulson,” Tony said before turning the full force of that smile on Steve, and honestly there was no better present in the world than a happy boyfriend.

Steve didn’t ask a single question, just taking Tony’s hand in his and smiling back at Tony’s Professor just for giving his boyfriend something to smile about. They had been in this relationship for two weeks, known one another for months now, and this moment was how he knew that he was truly falling in love. Someone else had given him this gift, and he wasn’t going to take it for granted, instead planning their afternoon in his head, driving Tony to one of the local restaurants, having dinner. None of this is what actually happened, instead they just went to the dining hall and Tony told him everything that had happened in the office, his arms going everywhere, all the while Steve just looked at him with a fond expression.

When they were back in Tony’s dorm, snuggled into the bed, Bucky and Natasha were out and Steve couldn’t be more thankful about it, they just sat there in each other’s arms. Tony snuggling right into his chest, Steve could feel his warm breath against his shirt making him sigh in happiness. He was sure that Tony had fallen asleep in his arms, the stress of the day falling away and leaving him happy, which Steve thought was the best kind of relief after being knocked down.

“I love you,” he said without thinking, he had been so sure that Tony was asleep, that when he felt the shorter man stiffen beneath him, he was surprised. “Forget I said anything, go back to sleep,” he wanted to kick himself for even saying it out loud, Tony would probably tell him that it was too soon for this.

“I... um... I don’t want to forget,” Steve continued when Tony hadn’t relaxed. “I think this is going really fast, but the last few months have made me happier than I ever been, and I just wanted to let you know.”

Tony looked up at him, those big brown doe eyes that Steve loved stared back, he was honestly afraid that Tony was going to reject him, except there was something in those eyes, something that Steve hoped was a good sign. Tony gave him a shy smile before putting his head next to Steve’s beating heart, he really wasn’t sure if Tony was checking to see if it was genuine or not, and if he could he would kiss the brunette.

“I love you too,” Tony said, his voice barely a whisper, but it was everything that Steve had ever wanted to hear. At age twenty he was sure that he had found his soulmate, and yes, he could be thinking about this whole relationship a little too quickly, but with Tony he was sure that in any universe they were meant to be with one another.

“I wasn’t sure if I should have told you,” Tony continued his voice muffled by Steve’s chest, “I think I’ve been trying to keep myself from feeling it, but then you kissed me and I thought, well this is it, this is what I’ve been waiting for.”

“Not your inventions, or your stories?”

“Nope, just you, everything else is something I create, you on the other hand are someone I care for, someone who doesn’t like me because of my family name or because I can further your life.”

“I did use you to help me study, but again that was under the pretense of spending more time with you.”

“See,” Tony said pulling away, and honestly Steve missed the weight of him on his chest. “All you really did was just look for an excuse to be near me because you wanted to be, I’m pretty certain that if you had just studied on your own you would have passed that class regardless.”

“Let’s not forget that you told me you liked me weeks before I even kissed you.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah you kind of did,” Steve reached for the desk behind him, his wallet and his phone sitting there, he grabbed his wallet and took out the bill he had carried around with him, he didn’t spend it, he didn’t want too, it had taken him a long time to figure out what it said, but it had become the thing that made him take a chance and try. “This right here, this told me more than anything, and even though I thought that you didn’t really like me, just leaving this there was enough for me to know that I had a chance.”

“You kept it,” Tony said looking at the bill and then at Steve, “You could have used it to eat or something.”

“But I didn’t want to, because it was something that you gave me, it was a piece of our relationship and I need to preserve it so that when someone asked me one day why I fell in love with you I can always tell them about that one time you write binary code on a twenty dollar bill.”

“Am I really such a cheeseball?”

“Well you’re my cheeseball,” Steve said before bending down and kissing Tony, this was worth every misunderstanding, all of the pining, every moment when he wasn’t sure if they would even get to this point. Because love was something you fought for and if you didn’t take the time to fight for the person, then it wasn’t a love worth your life.


	12. Chapter 12

The Annual Stark Christmas Gala was held not just for investors but also employees of Stark Industries, it was a huge party, and one that his mother spent months agonizing over. Tony loved watching the lights turn on this year, he had helped create a more energy efficient set of fairy lights, they twinkled all around them, it had been one of his end of the year projects, though not for school.

“We should make sure everyone is ready,” his mother said smiling at him, her glittering gown changing from gold to red, Tony had picked it out when they had gone shopping his first day back from school. His mother had wanted to spend some time with him, feeling guilty over leaving him alone during Thanksgiving. “Plus, I want to meet this boy you’re seeing.”

“Mom, he’s not a boy,” Tony complained, it was true, Steve was not a boy in anyway and neither was Tony, they were technically adults.

“My darling Anthony, until you and your Steve have jobs and don’t live at home, you will both be boys, but you and your brothers would always be my boys.”

“What about Natasha?”

“Well in some ways she’s actually a daddy’s girl,” his mother said with a smile on her face. “When your brothers came to us, your father was still gruff, he worked too hard, but the boys made him more willing to change, plus the board liked that he was a father and not a playboy, hell they thought he was cheating on me at one point.”

“I doubt that, Dad really loves you,” he said, and he knew she loved her husband as much as her husband loved her. “I can tell just from the way he looks at you so I doubt he would actually cheat on you.”

“That’s true, your father wouldn’t do anything to go against me, I would kill him if he did,” she said and though Tony knew it was a joke, they all knew to never cross his mother. “But when Thor and Loki came everything changed, hell Clint used to climb into the ceiling vents and drop down in your father’s workshop, scaring the shit out of him. But when Natasha came, and then you, well he softened.”

“You’re joking right?” she had to be, his father was always hard on him for every little thing, no matter how small it was. There was no way that man would soften up for anything, especially if its something Tony had done.

“It’s the truth, you may not have seen that change, but all you have to do is ask your brother,” she steered him towards the doors that led to the waiting rooms where their family and friends waited. He hadn’t seen Steve yet, but he knew that his boyfriend was a nervous wreck, hell he wasn’t even sure if Steve had arrived yet. “Your father smiles whenever you do something spectacular, he brags about it too, it only looks like he’s being hard on you because he wants to encourage your curiosity.”

“Well this is news to me.”

“Yeah well you’re more of a momma’s boy my little Anthony,” she said as she ushered him forward.

When they reached the waiting room, Tony was a little disappointed, Steve wasn’t there yet, and from the look on Natasha’s face, Bucky was missing as well. Rhodey was standing in a corner with a tall blonde, next to him were Pepper and May, who were both smiling. He saw Sharon with Aunt Peggy, along with Sam Wilson, Steve’s roommate and one of the people involved in that whole misunderstanding, though he was glad that everything had worked out for all of them.

He heard Thor before he saw him, which was hard considering Thor towered over all of them, but Thor picked him up and swung him around. “There you are,” Thor said before putting Tony on the ground. “Come, I need to introduce you to my boyfriend.”

That had been another surprise, while Tony had been sure that Loki was Pansexual, his most recent relationship had ended two months before, though he was here with a friend, Tony wasn’t sure who. Thor had fallen for some scientist who had come to work on a project at S.I. and Thor had been trying to convince to stay. Tony waved at Clint, and his fiancé Laura, which surprised no one, mainly because Laura had been the only one to keep Clint in check and from climbing into the vents at S.I. Thor all but carried Tony across the room before pushing him in front of a young scientist with curly hair flopped over his face, the man was smiling at Thor, and if it hadn’t been for Tony’s contacts, he would have gone blind. It was nice to see Thor so happy, hell it was nice to see everyone so happy.

“Tony, this is Bruce,” Thor said proudly, his chest puffed out, like he’s was showing off. “Bruce, my darling, this is my baby brother Tony.”

“Oh, hello,” Bruce said holding his hand out. “It’s good to meet you, Thor’s been telling me about some of your projects at school, especially the miniaturized arc reactor project that you’ve started.”

“Yeah, that was just a happy accident,” one that had been born from his fanfiction, but that was something that he was going to never mention to anyone in the science community. “I’ve been working on it for a little while, but when it’s done it could revolutionize the energy industry, get us out of oil and coal and into more sustainable forms of energy, one that won’t ruin the planet.”

“I would love to hear more about it, maybe we could collaborate, I’ve been working on projects that would help third world countries get better medical care,” Bruce said with Thor beaming next to him. “It’s actually how I met your brother, he was at a fundraiser that my company had put together, I work for a nonprofit, and Thor was there as Stark Industries liaison, we started talking about a town in New Mexico that had been hit pretty badly by some gas explosion and how he wanted to help.”

“Ah, I remember that day, I volunteered to help the town after that, it was why I was at our West Coast office for half the year,” Thor said looking at Bruce with hearts in his eyes. “That was before I learned that Bruce was actually from New York as well but studying at Culver University.”

“I was just researching something, but I moved back a few days ago, and your father offered me a job in research and development.”

“That was after Thor talked about everything Bruce had ever worked on, it’s very intriguing stuff,” his father said smiling, which was strange to see because Tony could only ever remember the scowling face, but maybe his mother had been right about one thing, maybe Tony never really looked at his father to see if he were proud or anything. “Now, let's get this party going, I would like to be home before midnight tonight.”

Tony laughed, because his father almost always said that but never actually made it home until well after two in the morning. Everyone walked into the ballroom just as the employees began coming in, Steve was nowhere in sight, and Tony was honestly worried. Natasha stuck next to him, a similar look in her eyes, though they had plenty of distractions in front of them. Their mother banned phones from the venue for all of them, especially after one party where their father had been on a business call for most of the time and hadn’t gotten off until well after the party had ended.

* * *

Steve wasn’t one who liked to be late for anything, he had been looking forward to this since Tony had told him about it. Of course, he was nervous, who wouldn’t be when meeting their boyfriend’s parents, but if Tony could get through meeting his crazy family, Steve could get through it as well. His bow had been tied by his mother as he had gotten ready, he had plenty of time to make it to the party, he was just waiting on Bucky. He should have known that life had another plan, nothing ever really went right when it mattered did it.

“Steve,” his father called out just as he was putting on his coat, a stack of papers in his hand and a smile on his face. “I’ve read through all of these, and I looked at the concept art you’ve drawn.”

“Oh,” Steve said, he had been so preoccupied with getting ready for the party, he had forgotten that he had given his father Tony’s stories, and some art that Steve himself had drawn, as a way to keep Captain America around, but under him and not his father, with his drawings and Tony’s writing, he had also wanted to bring Iron Man into the story as well as all of the characters that Tony had created.

“They’re good, really good, and you said that Tony was the one who created these, as fanfiction, but they would make an amazing comic run as well,” his father said, there were notes on the papers, but from what Steve could see they weren’t bad, his father normally made notes to change something here or there. “I wonder if Iron Man could be a woman or a man, it’s a real mystery if you think about it that way, they could really be anyone.”

Steve hadn’t gotten to finish Tony’s latest story, the one where Iron Man’s identity is revealed, but he thought that Tony would be the best one to choose that, but in Steve’s eyes, just like how Captain America was modeled over him, Iron Man could be Tony.

“The relationship development between the two of them is incredible, and it would be groundbreaking if we ran it, but can you really take on something like this, I mean you still have a year and a half left.”

“I was just running it by you, I figured that I could work on it and once I graduated maybe I’d try it out.”

“Well you and Tony both should come see me when you’re ready, I’ve never thought to put Cap in a team like the Avengers, but that’s because working on the X-Men was enough of a team for me, but this would be great.”

The heat on his cheeks reminded him of how proud he was of Tony for writing these characters, but also knowing how happy Tony would be from hearing something like this, to see his characters be brought to life as well. He was about to thank his father when they heard a cry from the other room, Steve looked at his father before watching the man rush off to the other room, Steve wasn’t that far behind. When they walked into the room, his mother was standing over a puddle clutching her belly.

“The girls are coming,” she said her eyes scrunched up a bit. His father stood there, dumbstruck, and Steve wasn’t sure of what to do either. “Hospital Joe, get me to the hospital.”

Peter and Harley rushed into the room, both disgusted at what they saw before running back out, his father jumped into action moving around to get their go bag and get his mother to the hospital. Steve’s car was in the way, so he tossed the keys to his father and made them take it instead, he grabbed his brothers and pushed them towards the mini-van just as Bucky walked over a smile on his face, dressed in a tux.

“Come on Steve, let’s go... wait where’s your car?” Bucky said looking around as Steve started the mini-van. “I’m not going to this thing in your dad’s mini.”

“Mom’s in labor,” Steve said, and Bucky just nodded before jumping in the backseat. “Can you call Bruce, I know he’s in the city, his boyfriend lives in Manhattan, so he can make it in time, and Peter call Hank and tell him where we’re off too.”

“What about Nat and Tony?” Bucky said and Steve felt guilty, he really wanted to be at the Gala, but this was family. “Steve?”

“Call Nat and tell her what’s happening,” he said feeling defeated, he felt Bucky squeeze his shoulder before he was on the phone.

Bucky let out a frustrated huff after a few minutes, “I’m getting nothing,” he said dialing the phone again. “I’d never expected any of them to be without their phones.”

“Maybe they’re on silent,” Steve said but he heard Peter talking in the background, which meant that at least Hank had gotten the call.

They were at the hospital in ten minutes, rushing towards labor and delivery, his father was pacing as they put his mother in the bed. “Aw, the boys look great, I’m sorry I ruined your evening,” she said her eyes scrunched up, which meant that she was in pain.

“How long apart are the contractions?” Steve asked as he got his brothers settled into the seats, Peter was bouncing up and down excited.

“The doctors said that she’s dilated at what 8 or 9,” his father turned, when he was worried about something, he tended to forget things very easily, his mother being in her late forties meant this was a risky pregnancy, so of course it meant that his father would worry himself into exhaustion.

“It’s going fast,” his mother said with a smile. “That means the girls will be out soon, or at least one of them, because usually twins don’t come out one after another unless they’re identical.”

“You don’t know that honey, for all we know they’re going to hold hands on the way out and terrorize us until we die,” his father said brushing off a piece of hair from his mother’s face. 

He wondered if he was going to be this lovey dovey with Tony in times of crisis, because this is a crisis if there ever was one. He sighed, texting Tony about what was happening now that he wasn’t behind the wheel of the car. It was weird that Tony wouldn’t answer the phone, even stranger that he wasn’t answering the messages.

* * *

Worried, that’s what he was at the moment, he couldn’t figure out why Steve would be late, they had talked about this day, he was supposed to introduce his boyfriend to his parents, and while everyone was happily distracted, Tony just wanted to sneak off and get his phone to make sure that Steve hadn’t gotten into an accident.

“I’ll cover for you,” Natasha said next to him. “I want to know where they are as much as you, but since mom put that phone ban, no one has their phones here, they’re all in the coat check.”

“Mine is in the waiting room,” he said but he knew he would get in trouble, he wasn’t the best at sneaking out.

“I left mine at home, mom is so strict about that rule that I hadn’t bothered to bring it at all,” she told him, she looked so calm, if it weren’t for the way she was gnawing on lip, he would think that everything was fine.

“I’m not good at... you know sneaking out.”

Natasha huffed at him before rolling her eyes, “Fine I’ll go get it, but head towards the bathroom on the far side of the ballroom, mom won’t go over there, the thing is closed, they had a problem with the pipes or something for it’s under construction.”

“Okay,” he said as she went off, she had the ability to be seen when she wanted to be seen, and stay hidden when she didn’t want anyone to know where she was going. While Tony on the other hand, stuck out like a sore thumb, because he usually tripped on something on his way out, or he looked too obvious while sneaking.

He just stood against the wall at the other end of the ballroom, playing with the cuffs on his shirt, looking bored, when he really wasn’t, it was just him acting like he didn’t want to be here. Natasha stood next to him a few minutes later almost like she had been there the whole time and not sneaking off to get his phone.

“Why is that thing so complicated, I don’t even know how to turn it on,” she said as she slid it into his pocket.

“Well I hated the one mom gave me, so I took it apart and only used what I needed to keep it on the plan, and then I made my own phone, but it’s not really that hard, I’ll explain it to you when I’m not freaking out about whether Steve’s been in an accident,” he said as he turned towards the wall, acting like he was looking at one of the decorations, all the while he pressed his thumb on the screen and watched as it lit up. “I know you want one.”

“Yeah you wish,” she said turning towards the wall as well, but he knew that she was just messing with him.

“Oh my god,” he said as the messages all started popping up, “Steve’s mom is in labor, they’re at the hospital.”

Natasha looked over at him surprised by this, “And if James was going to drive down with Steve it means he’s there as well.”

“We need to go,” Tony said looking around, wondering who had a car and could take them, but he also saw the look in his mother’s eyes as she spotted his phone. “Crap.”

Their mother walked over to them, smiling at people as she walked pass them, before standing in front of her youngest with a knowing look. “I thought the phone rule was iron clad?”

“Steve’s mom’s in labor,” Tony blurted out, his mother’s eyes were wide as the words registered, she nodded before looking around the room.

“Come with me,” she said before she led them to where Thor was standing, he was with Bruce and the two of them were talking to a few of the workers, all the while Thor was swinging their joined hands back and forth. Tony felt bad because he knew why his mother had looked for Thor and not anyone else, he had the fastest car out of all of them, Clint only had a motorcycle his girlfriend had driven them, and Loki was a little preoccupied with their father.

“Hello,” Thor said beaming at their mother.

“Thor, sweetie, I know you are hear with your lovely boyfriend, but I need you to drive Tony and Natasha somewhere, if it’s alright with you,” her face was serious as she said it because Thor’s eyes turned serious the moment she was done.

“Sure, I’ll go get my car,” Thor said kissing Bruce before walking away.

“I’m sorry,” Tony said to Bruce, knowing that he was intruding on their date. “It’s just that my boyfriend was supposed to come here today, and Natasha’s boyfriend as well, but they had to go to the hospital on a family emergency.”

“I hope everything is okay,” Bruce said looking from Tony to Natasha, “I’ll go with you all, since it’s actually date night, I don’t really want to have Thor worry about me at the same time.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” his mother said smiling at all of them. “I’m glad that all of my children are happy.”

They went out to meet Thor their coats on, Tony left his off, he was already sweating in the suit and he didn’t want to add to that once they were in the car, because as big as his brother was, the man had zero body fat, he was always cold and had the tendency of blasting the heat. They let Bruce take the front seat, while him and Natasha sat in the back, Tony had already ruined their night, he didn’t want them to be too far from one another if he could help it.

Natasha was at his side texting Bucky from Tony’s phone, “James said that she’s going into the delivery room right now, so we’ll get there just as the babies are born.”

Tony was excited for Steve, but he was also nervous, he knew the risks that Steve’s mother was taking just to have the babies, there was also the fact that Steve worries, he doesn’t tell Tony that he worries, but Tony knows.

When they pull up to the Hospital, “I live near here, I wonder if Thor would want to meet my parents today too,” Bruce says as Tony starts to get out.

In Tony’s mind he knows that he should have connected the dots, but he hadn’t known Bruce’s last name, and he had been too worried about whether Steve had been in an accident to actually ask. They rushed up to Labor and Delivery to see Steve pacing back and forth in his tux, which Tony thought was sexy, but he couldn’t say that, not with everything that was happening, but he’d save the comment for later.

If there was one thing that Steve wasn’t expecting it was Bucky telling him and Tony was on his way, he worried that Tony would get into an accident on the way there. He had almost told Bucky to tell them not to worry

“Steve,” he heard a familiar voice call out, as his older brother walked forward towards him and his brothers, his mother was already in the delivery room and his father had to have stitches after one particularly bad contraction from his mother had sent him flying. Luckily the doctor had allowed the stitches to be put on while in the room with his mother after his father wouldn’t let go of her hand. Steve was sure that she might have broken that too, but he wasn’t going to ask.

“Bruce, how did you get here,” Steve said first in surprise, seeing his older brother walking towards them, he knew that Bruce was working somewhere though they didn’t know where, because he had transferred recently.

“I thought you couldn’t come,” Peter added as he rushed to meet his brother throwing his arms around Bruce.

“Mom said not to bother you,” Harley said after he had launched himself onto Bruce’s back.

“I hadn’t even known that it was mom who was in labor, my boyfriend was driving his brother up here,” Bruce said before pointing out Tony and Natasha who were standing next to a very tall blonde man, who Steve knew should be familiar but there was too much happening at that moment.

“Yeah it seems that your brother is dating my brother,” Tony said as he came to a stop next to Steve. “Hi.”

“Hey,” he couldn’t help but lean down and kiss his boyfriend, “You didn’t have to come you know.”

“But I needed to come here, I was worried, and then after I found out what was happening, I started worrying about something else. I guess I just didn’t want to leave you alone while you’re going through this.”

“He’s not really alone you punk,” Bucky said as he walked over, his arm around Natasha, “but I appreciate you bringing Nat here.”

“Thank my mom, she got us out of there and made Thor drive us up here,” Natasha said smiling at them.

They stood there, Bruce introducing his boyfriend, who also happened to be a Stark, to his family, and Steve couldn’t help but think just how small the world really was. Even as his father called them into the room to introduce his sisters to the world, knowing in the back of his head how his father was already thinking of creating characters for them.

“They’re going to need to know they’re strong,” his father had told him when Steve gave him a look. “It’s my gift to my kids, sue me.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that, “So, what are their names?”

“Welcome your sisters, Daisy and Doreen Rogers,” his mother answered with a smile.

“Doreen?” Tony asked and Peter’s smile grew.

“I wanted to name her Dory, but mom said she would hate me for it, Daisy was Harley’s idea,” Peter answered the smile still on his face. “Plus, they’re both D names which I think is cool for twins.”

“You can call her Dory for short,” Harley said smiling at his baby sisters.

There was nothing better than the feeling he had at the moment, with Tony by his side, his family there, he was happy. Hours later, after his parents had kicked them all out of the hospital, Steve sat in the living room with Tony at his side. They had all changed into more comfortable clothes, Tony in one of Steve’s hoodies, his contacts out and his glasses back on. He looked comfortable, but Steve wished that they had had the chance to dance at the party, hell he wished that he had been able to go to the party.

“Sorry I didn’t get the chance to meet your parents,” Steve said as Tony snuggled into him, yawning as he did. “I wish I could have been there, if anything to see the look on Bruce’s face when he realized that we’re both dating Starks.”

“Color me surprised that Bruce was your brother, I should have noticed he looks like your dad,” Tony said before yawning once again. “My mom is very good at organizing things, especially her own children, so the moment she saw us with our phones... well at first she wasn’t very happy because she has this blanket rule against phones at any function, we usually have to leave them behind...

“Is that why we couldn’t get a hold of you?”

“Yeah, my phone was with my coat, Nat just left hers behind because we don’t like upsetting our mom... anyway, she knew we wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for the fact that we were worried to death, so she got Thor to drive us.”

“Why Thor? I mean it’s great and all, but why him. The whole coincidence with him and Bruce is one thing.”

“My mother has a way of knowing things, but there’s also the fact that Loki and my dad were in the middle of talking with a bunch of people, Clint was with his fiancé... and the fact that he only drives a motorcycle, so he had gone to the party with my parents.”

“Do you think you mother knew... that Bruce was my brother?” Steve asked, he was genuinely curious about it because it felt like too much of a coincidence that this was all happening like this, but then again no one ever really knew everything.

“You mean like a mother’s intuition type of thing? I don’t know... maybe... damn now this is going to be in my head.”

Steve kissed him on the head, it was nice to just sit here and talk like this, “Who knows, we’ll have to ask her one day.”

Tony hummed into his chest, and Steve knew that he was losing him, they were tired, all of them were, especially after all of the excitement from the whole day. But he knew that there was one more thing that he needed to tell Tony, something important, because Tony would love the news.

“Hey Tony,” he said and only got another hum as an answer. “So, I gave my dad some sketches along with some of your stories, and... well he was wondering if we wanted to create it as a comic run.”

At his words Tony jolted out of his arms and looked at him with a serious expression, “Tell me you’re not lying to me right now? Tell me Steve.”

“I’m not, he wants to know if we would be willing to carry on with not only Captain America but introducing Iron Man and everyone else into the comics, and having me and you, and probably anyone else who wants to be involved, starting up the Avengers comic run.”

Tony let out a sound that let everyone in the house know how excited he was, he had woken up Peter and Harley, Natasha and Bucky came in from the kitchen where they had been making some food for them, and Thor walked behind Bruce looking around at the pictures that were nestled everywhere.

“Do I want to know?” Natasha asked before Tony told her everything that Steve had just said, talking so fast and sometimes in three different languages that no one but Thor and Natasha could understand. “Really, you’re not lying, Rogers if you lied to my brother, I will kill you where you stand.”

“Not lying, my dad asked me before my mom went into labor,” Steve said holding his hands up, “I was going to wait until Christmas to tell Tony, but with all of the excitement I figured what better time to tell him.”

“Best Christmas present EVER,” Tony said before grabbing Steve’s face and kissing him in front of everyone. He knew he was blushing, but it was worth it if it meant that Tony was happy with them being like this.


	13. Epilogue

_A Multi-Talented Genius_

_As Posted on the NY Times Website_

_It seems that the youngest Stark child is about to change the literary world as well as the technological world. Anthony Stark has won the top prize in the Young Marvel’s writing contest, with a story he had written for one of his undergraduate classes, which had also won a prize in his school’s writing contest. Professor Phil Coulson, the award-winning author, has said that Stark is one of the most gifted writers he had known and hopes that he would continue writing in the future._

_In other surprising news Stark himself has teamed up with the son of Captain America creator Joseph Rogers, Steve Rogers, in order to continue writing the Captain America series and bring the character into a new team of heroes which has been created by the pair. The series will begin it’s run in the summer of 2022 as both Stark and Rogers finish their degrees. Rogers is currently finishing up his Bachelor’s in Art with a minor in Art History and History, while Stark is currently working on a triple degree, two are PH. D’s one in Mechanical Engineering and a second in Computer programing, as well as a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing._

_Excerpt from The Young Dancer_

_By Tony Stark_

_They were dancing, it was all there was to it, their father only believed that she should dance, he didn’t matter, boys don’t do ballet, his father would tell him. But that night she went to him and slowly taught him the steps, going through each of them one by one, correcting his posture and smiling when he got it right. His sister was his hero from that moment on, she went against their father, and gave him the opportunity to learn how to dance._

_Some days it feels like he’s flying through the air, touching the clouds, as he twirls and twirls around, he can see the stars, almost reach out and touch them. This is what she had given him, this is what freedom felt like, and he wasn’t going to let it go._

Natasha stopped reading the article as she looked over at her brother who was currently sitting on his boyfriend’s lap. James had gone to pick up their dinner, earlier and now they were just sitting there eating a pile of Chinese food from Tony and Steve’s favorite place from the other side of town. The article had been published earlier in the day, but none of them had known about it until Natasha had gotten an email from her mother asking about her brother’s story. Mainly because it had reminded her about that time that their father had yelled at Tony for wanting to dance. The story was truthful about Natasha teaching her brother to dance, but the story deviated at some points becoming something close to a young boy learning to fly from just dancing.

“I can’t believe you made me think that you were getting a triple B.A.,” James said pointing at the article that Natasha had read from. “I feel like I should complain to the school for sticking me with a know it all roommate.”

“Yeah because complaining about whether I should have told the world that I was getting my Ph. D when I was eighteen would have been better, you would have just teased me from the moment we met,” Tony said before throwing a broccoli at James, the whole scene made her smile, this was something she had never thought that she would get, but they were happy and it was the best thing she could have asked for. Their lives hadn’t been easy growing up, but she wouldn’t change at thing if it meant that she would have met James, or that Tony would have met Steve. This was destiny’s way of making up for the things that Tony had gone through, just by having him fall in love with someone who was close to the person she fell for.

“I knew,” she said smiling at her boyfriend picking the broccoli off of his shirt and eating it. “But then again Tony is too smart of his own good, so it was good that he held back, plus the undergrads aren’t allowed to stay in the labs overnight, only the Grad students were, so how you didn’t put two and two together I can never figure out.”

“Doesn’t matter if I’m dumb you love me anyway,” James said to her before leaning over and kissing her. “You only really like me for my good looks.”

“Among other things,” she said to him, those other things she probably wouldn’t discuss with Tony around because as much as she loved her brother, she needed to have her own secrets.

James had spent the summer working as an intern at Stark Industries, he had gotten the position after her mother had seen him in action working behind the scenes at a function that Natasha had to run on her own when her mother had gotten sick and couldn’t do it. In reality she hadn’t been sick and had been testing Natasha on whether she could actually do the job on her own. This was one of the things her parents did, they were grooming them all to take over the company so that they could retire at some point in their lives. Though their father wasn’t willing to retire just yet, he still had things that he needed to do.

“You two are gross, please don’t talk about your sex life around me,” Tony said throwing a pillow at them, of course she caught it before it hit her and tossed it back.

“Like you’re one to talk,” she said and laughed at the redness rising on his neck. She knew for a fact that he still hadn’t done anything with Steve, he had told her that he wanted to wait just a little longer. Steve had been okay with it as well, so most of the time she just found them cuddling on the same bed from the year before, because instead of moving in with Steve, Tony had decided to stay in the same room as Bucky.

As for Tony and Steve, they had spent the summer together, planning the Avengers comic, as well as going camping, which surprised her, but her brother loved it and she wasn’t going to deny him something like that. Steve had asked her if it would be crazy to propose to Tony while they were so young, but she could only tell him to wait at least until they were past the first run of the comic before doing anything. Tony would be twenty-one, and they could celebrate as much as they want. She saw the way that Steve looked at Tony and knew that they would be happy together for a very long time. Plus, she wanted a double wedding, it would be so much fun for her and James to get married on the same day as Steve and Tony, she had it planned out already, now she just had to wait for that day.

“To our futures,” she said winking at her brother. “May it be filled with love, success, and unlimited happiness.”

“Here, here,” the three guys next to her called out. This was her life, now if only she could find someone for Jan that the guys knew, that way Natasha wouldn’t be surrounded by just men. It was something to think about, but until then she was just going to enjoy the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, Kudos, reactions to this! I would like to hear your thoughts

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Team INDIA: Art for When You Smile, I See Stars in the Sky](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21513577) by [DragonK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonK/pseuds/DragonK)




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